Josh Taylor wants to ‘really mess’ Jack Catterall up in their rematch in Leeds

Josh Taylor has vowed to deliver “a long and painful night” to Jack Catterall in their rematch in Leeds on Saturday.

Former undisputed super lightweight champion Taylor edged past Catterall in a controversial points victory during their first meeting in 2022.

The Scot, who wants to win by any means at the First Direct Arena, admitted he would relish inflicting pain on his rival, who felt he should have won the first fight.

“The true Josh Taylor will come out and if it’s a great fight and I’m doing well, I’ll outperform him, outbox him, it will just be like what I should’ve done to him the first time,” Taylor told the PA news agency.

“I don’t care what people think, I’m just after the win. Ideally I want to make it a long and painful night for him but don’t get me wrong if I see that opportunity then I’ll be taking it and getting him out of there.

“Let’s make it a phone box and punch lumps out of each other and really mess him up, why not? We’ve got things which we’ve worked on in the gym. I’ve been flying in sparring so I’m feeling good, sharp and strong.”

Judge Ian John-Lewis was downgraded after the first fight following his 114-111 score in favour of Taylor.

Taylor believes his performance that night was not a true representation of his ability and that Catterall blew his chance of making history.

“He’ll have no excuses when I beat him up properly for the second time,” Taylor added.

“That version he got of me in the first fight, you’ll never get that version of Josh Taylor again. That was his chance to make history and he mucked it up, he’ll never get that chance again.”

The fight will take place in West Yorkshire and not Taylor’s homeland again.

Taylor said: “Jack didn’t want to come back to Scotland, not like it makes any difference. They told me to go to Manchester. I said ‘for one I won the fight, two you don’t sell any tickets.’

“I saw his fight in Liverpool, his last fight. It was busy but that was because there were Liverpool fighters on the undercard. By the time he came on you’ll be lucky if there was a couple hundred people in there. He stunk the place out.

“He wants to fight in Manchester when you can’t sell out Liverpool so we agreed to go to neutral ground.”

:: The fight promoted by Matchroom and Top Rank Boxing is available to watch on ESPN+ in the US and DAZN around the world.