Josh Taylor will defend his undisputed world super-lightweight title against Jack Catterall in Glasgow on December 18 in one of the highlights of the new Sky Sports boxing schedule unveiled today.
Taylor and Anthony Joshua were the biggest two names revealed in the new-look Sky schedule, the first since the departure of Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom group from the broadcaster.
Joshua’s fight with Oleksandr Usyk on September 25 will be on Sky Sports Box Office, the final fight of the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion’s deal with Sky, but Taylor will make the first defense of the title he unified by beating Jose Ramirez in May in Las Vegas will not be on pay-per-view.
Sky have teamed up with promoters Top Rank and Boxxer to restart their boxing schedule. Other signings include Chris Eubank Jr, Richard Riakporhe, Hughie Fury, Savannah Marshall, the WBO middleweight champion, and Olympian Caroline Dubois.
The Sky schedule kicks off with Joshua-Usyk on September 25 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a show that also features Lawrence Okolie defending his WBO cruiserweight title against Dila Prasovic. The first Fight Night show takes place on October 2 when Eubank faces Sven Elbir at the SSE Arena, Wembley, on a bill that also features Riakporhe, the former British cruiserweight champion, and a European welterweight title fight between David Avanesyan and Liam Taylor. Two weeks later, Fury takes on German heavyweight Christian Hammer in Newcastle, with Marshall defending her world title against Lolita Muzeya, a show that will also feature Lewis Ritson.
There will be a Boxxer tournament from Liverpool on November 6, while the WBO super-featherweight title fight between Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson on October 24 will also be shown live. More fights are due to be added to the schedule.
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.