Trainer Claims Josh Taylor Is Completely Injury Free Heading Into Jack Catterall Rematch
Joe McNally, the trainer of Josh Taylor says his fighter is completely healthy going into his rematch with Jack Catterall on Saturday.
Heading into the rematch, McNally says Taylor’s weight is in a great spot and he also is healthy, which is rare for fighters. He says the delay in the rematch against Catterall was good for Taylor and he expects a vintage performance on Saturday.
“Thankfully [Taylor’s] followed the program, and his weight’s fine. He’s not too far off the weight. He’s not too high and he’s not too low – he’s where we need him. If he tires in the fight, it’s nothing to do with the weight. He’s done all his roadwork; he’s done all his circuit training; his strength and conditioning. He’s done over 150 rounds of sparring. It’s down to the man himself to put a performance in on Saturday, so his weight’s not an issue,” McNally said.
“The delay helped because when he had his eye operation – the procedure he had was to tighten the muscles of the eye. When we started camp and were training, they told us, ‘You can train, but don’t train too hard’. There’s obviously complicated problems; problems with every surgery you have. Unfortunately for us, when we were stepping the intensity up in the camp, the eye started flaring up. But if we’d stuck to the original date we couldn’t keep stepping the training up and resume our sparring. ‘Do we ease up; forget the sparring for now, and please everyone else and go ahead with the original date, or go and get the correction off the doctor’s advice and the delay of four or five weeks?’ That’s why I was pleased,” McNally continued.
“[His eye’s] fantastic. He got the correction done and he hasn’t complained once about it. His defence has been good. His reaction time’s good. There’s f*** all wrong with it. I’m happy,” McNally added. “I had a lot of regrets with the Teofimo fight. He couldn’t run with his foot – he couldn’t do really high intensity work. Even his first 60-plus rounds of sparring – it was all holding his feet, which isn’t Josh Taylor. Maybe we should have delayed that. Thankfully there’s no injuries; the weight’s good. This will show Saturday if there is still a vintage Josh Taylor in there.”
Taylor is the betting underdog heading into the rematch, as he looks to return to the win column after a loss to Teofimo Lopez last time out.
