Taylor v Catterall betting tips: Tartan Tornado favourite for homecoming bout

Odds and preview for Saturday’s light-welterweight bout

The top-class boxing action in February concludes this weekend and someone’s 0 has got to go in this all-British shootout for all of the marbles in the light-welterweight division as Josh Taylor puts his 140lb belts on the line against Chorley’s unbeaten Jack Catterall.  

Catterall, who stepped aside to allow Taylor to challenge Jose Ramirez in a unification bout in May last year, was meant to step into the ring with the Tartan Tornado in December, but a knee injury to the champion delayed the bout for two months.  

Both men have now had that little bit longer to sharpen their tools and it is no surprise that Taylor, arguably the best pound-for-pound boxer in the UK right now, is a heavy 1/12 favourite for this Scotland v England dust-up, while Catterall is 7/1 to cause an upset in Taylor v Catterall betting tips.  

First bell for the main event at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro arena is scheduled for around 10pm and all of the action is live on Sky Sports.  

Tartan Tornado looking to cause a storm 

Although he doesn’t have the profile of the likes of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, there is no doubt about the quality of Taylor and those inside the trade recognise the Prestonpans puncher as one of the best talents in the game.  

A regular amongst the pound-for-pound world rankings, the 31-year-old returns to Glasgow with a perfect 18-0 record and his win over Ramirez last year made him the first British fighter to become an undisputed champion in the four-belt era.  

Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk are the only other fighters to hold all four belts in one weight class at the same time and it seems only a matter of time before he moves up to 147lb to chase the glamour bouts against the likes of Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.  

Taylor’s last six opponents have a combined record of 133-0 which shows the experience and big-fight pedigree that the Scotsman has built up despite only having 18 fights on his record.

Having won his first world title in this very ring, he added the WBA belt when edging Regis Prograis in a fight of the year contender in 2019 and then collected all of the marbles when destroying the previously unbeaten Ramirez in Las Vegas.  

Josh Taylor drops Jose Ramirez 🔥

(via @trboxing)pic.twitter.com/fc8dJChL7O

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 23, 2021

Catterall cool as he bides his time 

There is little on Catterall’s CV to cause Taylor any sleepless nights, but the Chorley boxer will be the sixth-straight unbeaten fighter the Edinburgh man will face and Catterall may have just timed his challenge right.  

Whereas Taylor has had to come through four battles to win all the belts, Catterall has kept ticking over in the gym and now has the chance to snatch them all in one go as he steps into the lions’ den in Glasgow.  

However, this will be by far and away Catterall’s biggest night in boxing and unlike Taylor, he is unaccustomed to slugging it out in front of a packed house. Despite being mandatory challenger for the WBO version of the world championship belt since 2019, he is yet to headline a feature night of boxing.  

Big fight odds 

Few fighters are as intense and fired up in the build-up to a fight as Taylor, who was bang on the 10st limit when weighing in for the defence of his 140lb straps. 

Taylor has often talked of turning into his alter-ego Hank in fight week and if Hank is fully focused then he will be expected to breeze through this return to Glasgow. He has the unique ability to both box and fight, to be the aggressor on the front foot, but also execute the sweet science with swift movement and counters.  

On paper Taylor is just better than Catterall in all departments and it is easy to see why he is the heavy favourite in Taylor v Catterall betting tips.  

It is 4/6 for Taylor to stop his opponent and 8/5 to win on the scorecards in Taylor v Catterall betting tips, while if the occasion gets too much for the Englishman, Taylor could make this a quick piece of work and it is 8/1 for the Scotsman to win in the first quarter and 9/2 to stop Catterall in rounds 4-6.  

The bout to end within six rounds is 12/5, while you don’t get paid overtime in boxing and for Taylor to repeat his first round beating of Apinun Khongsong, you can get big fight odds of 25/1.  

This one's gonna be GOOD 👀@JoshTaylorBoxer & @Jack_Catt93 face-off one last time before their 140-pound showdown 🔥#TaylorCatterall | TOMORROW | @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/7Dt3oVvELX

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) February 25, 2022

Time will tell if Catterall truly has the ability to mix it with the best on the big stage, but he has a smart team behind him in Jamie Moore and Nigel Travis, who will have been studying Taylor as a potential opponent for some time.  

There is a school of thought that Catterall will only show his very best when thrown into the big occasions, and if he is to rise to the challenge, then he could make Taylor’s homecoming a trudge through the Glasgow trenches rather than a stroll through the park.  

Catterall to take this deep and win on points looks his best chance of victory against a man who has shown a solid chin in the past and a victory via the judges is listed at 14/1. It is also  6/5 for the fight to go the distance in Taylor v Catterall betting tips.  

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All odds and markets correct as of date of publication