Josh Taylor needs to come back down to earth, says the manager of Jack Catterall.

Scotland’s Taylor, the former undisputed 140-pound championship, caused a stir this past week when he said he rejected an offer from Matchroom Boxing to face England’s Catterall in a rematch because the presented purse was an 80% drop from his payday from the first fight.           

Taylor controversially defeated Catterall by split decision last year, in February, in what was Taylor’s first defense of his four 140-pound titles. The decision was regarded by many fans and pundits as one of the worst decisions in recent memory.

The two were set to enter into an immediate rematch but after many starts and stops they decided to go their separate ways, with Taylor vacating several of his belts to take on Teofimo Lopez, who defeated him by unanimous decision this past summer at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Catterall has reeled off two straight victories since the disputed loss to Taylor, unanimous decisions over Darragh Foley and Jorge Linares.

Sam Jones, the chief handler for Catterall, said Taylor needs to accept the fact that his stock has diminished since his first meeting with Catterall. At the same time, Jones pointed out that Hearn would need to do his part to sweeten the pot a bit more for Taylor.  

“They don’t like each other,” Jones told Boxing Social. “He (Taylor) don’t like me. It’s just what it is. It’s just going to be a huge buildup isn’t it. It’s going to be nasty. When it’s genuine and not forced and fake, you get a proper buildup. …British boxing needs this to happen.

“Where are we at now? Eddie says he’s sharpening his pencil. He’s going to go back to Josh Taylor and hopefully Josh, he just needs to be realistic. He just needs to face the reality of the fact that he’s coming off the back of two defeats. He needs to be realistic. The only person that will stop this fight happening is Josh Taylor and as I say, Eddie needs to, in Josh’s words, sharpen his pencil and get the fight made.”

Jones said as far as Catterall is concerned, there are no financial obstacles to fighting Taylor.

“Eddie needs to sharpen his pencil and Josh Taylor needs to be realistic,” Jones said. “We’re good to go, from our side. Simple as that.”

Jones added, “We need domestic fights to happen.” 

Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.