Jack Catterall vs Arnold Barboza Jr – Results & Post Fight Report

Catterall (30-2, 13 KOs) was in the midst of a fine spell in his career, with several impressive recent wins, and ‘El Gato’ got off the canvas against Regis Prograis in his last outing, before decking the American twice on the way to a unanimous points win. Barboza Jr (32-0, 11 KOs) hadn’t previously been past ten rounds, but did score a points win against former unified world champion, Jose Carlos Ramirez in Riyadh last November.

Catterall began brightly, landing with effective counter shots in the opener, and his patient output was working well, as he was landing the cleaner punches against the busy Barboza in round two.

Barboza began to up the pressure in round three, and his fast hands and work rate were starting to bank him rounds, but Catterall’s counter punching was still causing the American problems as the bout reached halfway.

A sweetly timed combination from Barboza found the mark in the seventh, but Catterall responded in kind a round later with a couple of left hooks landing cleanly. The two were taking turns to have their successes, and round ten saw him put his foot on the gas again, although he did hit the canvas, that was ruled as a slip. The penultimate round was a close one, and that set up a grandstand finish where the fight looked up for grabs, and the pair let their hands go as the final bell sounded.

Two scores of 115-113 were enough for Barboza to get his hand raised, with a third judge scoring the same for Catterall. Barboza will now move closer to a meeting with WBO champion, Teofimo Lopez.

James ‘Jazza’ Dickens (35-5, 14 KOs) took the crossroads clash on the undercard, as he dealt Zelfa Barrett (31-3, 17 KOs) a hammer blow to his career by taking a points win in their meeting. Dickens won handily on two cards, by scores of 97-93, and a third judge had it 96-94 to the Liverpudlian.

The Indian Summer of Reece Bellotti (20-5, 15 KOs) continued, as he defended his British and Commonwealth super featherweight titles by forcing Michael Gomez Jr (21-2, 6 KOs) to retire at the end of the ninth round. Gomez was down twice during the fight, once in the fifth, and again in the eighth, both from body shots, and Bellotti still had to overcome a nasty cut to get the job done.

Former Olympian Pat McCormack (7-0, 5 KOs) continued his education, and dropped Robbie Davies Jr (24-6, 15 KOs) three times before forcing Davies to retire after six frames in their welterweight contest.

In six rounders, William Crolla (7-0, 6 KOs) needed less than a round to see off Ayoub Zakari (5-8-1, 0 KOs) at super welterweight, and at lightweight, Aqib Fiaz (13-1, 2 KOs) took only the second stoppage of his career in halting Lydon Chircop (7-3, 4 KOs) in three.

Light heavyweight debutant Conner Tudsbury (1-0, 1 KO) started professional life with a second round stoppage win against Sadaam Moamed Da Silva Caetano (7-6, 5 KOs).

The only four rounder came at featherweight, where Alfie Middlemiss (2-0, 0 KOs) took a points win over Caine Singh (1-6-2, 0 KOs).