Jack Catterall has taken the past few weeks to recover from his hard-fought decision victory over Regis Prograis, but the top junior wrestler is ready to get back into action.
Catterall’s fight with Prograis is the first boxing event to be held at Manchester’s new Co-Op Live Arena and 31-year-old promoter Eddie Hearn told BoxingScene that he is planning to bring him back. City, Catterall’s opponent will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
After the fight with Prograis, Catterall 30-1 (13 KO) and his team united in the belief that he deserved his next world title shot and IBF champion Liam Paro 25-0 (15 KO) almost immediately. That was singled out as the most likely target. The Australian has pressing business to attend to: next week he plans a tricky title defense against unbeaten American Richardson Hitchins, 18-0 (7 KO).
This week, Catterall was given a path to another title when the WBO ordered him to fight Arnold Barbosa Jr. 31-0 (11 KO) in the final round of the playoffs for the belt held by Tee. Ofimo López, who is reportedly considering a move up to the wrestler
Catterall told BoxingScene that rather than making a hasty decision, He will wait to see what happens between Paro and Hitchins.
“That is next week. So he didn’t have a lot of time to wait,” Hearn said.
“We are scheduling February in Manchester for Jack. I really liked Barboza’s fight. Of course we want it to be the world champion. I think everyone wants it. But at the same time You just don’t know what will happen to Teofimo Lopez, that final eliminator could become the temporary titleholder. Could become world champion
“But it was a good choice. The key is to try to get him to win the world championship. But if everything fails Barbosa was also the last eliminated.”
