Jack Catterall (born 1 July 1993) is an English professional boxer. He challenged for the undisputed light-welterweight title in 2022. At regional level, he has held multiple light-welterweight championships, including the British title from 2017 to 2018.
Early life
Jack Catterall was born on 1 July 1993 in Chorley, Lancashire. One of nine children in the household, Catterall took part in judo and wrestling before finding his way into boxing at the age of 10. Before getting into boxing full time, he took a college course in public services and worked a job laying tarmac to fund his gym sessions.
Amateur career
Catterall boxed out of Chorley ABC from the age of 10 and compiled an amateur record of 48–18, during a career in which he won a CYP (Clubs for Young People) National title and placed second in the ABAE Junior Championships.
Professional career
Early career
Catterall made his professional debut against Carl Allen on 22 September 2012 at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester, winning by points decision (PTS) over four rounds. He fought once more in 2012, defeating Johnny Greaves via first-round technical knockout (TKO).
He started 2013 with a fourth-round TKO win over Carl Allen in March, and secured another three wins that year; Mark McKray via PTS in April; a second-round knockout (KO) over Tom Price in June; and Renald Garrido via PTS in November.
Following his first fight of 2014 – a fifth-round TKO victory over Aleksas Vaseris in March – it was announced that Catterall had signed a two-year contract with Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions. His first fight with the company was an eight-round points decision victory over Krzysztof Szot in May. Up next was a fight with undefeated prospect Nathan Brough (11–0) on 26 July at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester. Both fighters had success in round one – Brough with the jab and Catterall with a few clean shots to the head. The second-round saw much of the same, until Catterall landed a vicious counter left hook to the chin of Brough which left the Liverpudlian needing medical attention in the ring, scoring a TKO win with 58 seconds left in the round to capture the Central Area light-welterweight title. His final fight of 2014 came on 25 October at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, against Tom Stalker, friend of Catterall's previous opponent, Nathan Brough. Stalker, a 2012 Olympian and also unbeaten with a record of 9–0, had pulled out of a British light-welterweight title eliminator against Chris Jenkins in favour of facing Catterall. Catterall dropped Stalker in the first and second rounds. With 12 seconds remaining in the eighth-round, referee Mark Lyons waved off the fight after a left hook from Catterall sent Stalker stumbling on unsteady legs, giving Catterall the TKO win and the WBO European light-welterweight title.
On 6 March 2015, Catterall fought Cesar David Inalef (18–5–1) for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental light-welterweight title at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. After a controlled performance, in which Catterall had Inalef down in the second-round from a body shot and knocked the Argentines mouthpiece out on three occasions, Catterall scored a fifth-round TKO with 1 minute and 3 seconds remaining. He successfully defended his WBO regional title three times in 2015; a sixth-round TKO over Gabriel Calfin in September; a ten-round UD over Jarkko Putkonen in October; and a third-round TKO over Noe Nunez in December to finish the year.
British champion
He had three decision wins in 2016; a defence against Joe Hughes in a British light-welterweight final eliminator in May; Lukasz Janik in an eight-round non-title bout in August; and another defence against Diego Gonzalo Luque in December.
He began 2017 with a third-round TKO win over Martin Gethin in April, in what would be Gethin's final professional bout, before going on to challenge British light-welterweight champion Tyrone Nurse (35–2–2) on 21 October, at the First Direct Arena in Leeds. Catterall won by UD with the scorecards reading 118–111, 116–113 and 115–114, to capture the British light-welterweight title. Shortly after winning the title, Catterall vacated in favour of continuing down the WBO title route.
World title contention
Starting out 2018 with a first-round KO over Kevin McCauley in a non-title bout in March 2018, Catterall went on to successfully defend his WBO Inter-Continental title a further three times that year; scoring a first-round TKO over Christopher Sebire in May; a ten-round unanimous decision over undefeated Tyrone McKenna in June; and ending with a twelve-round UD over Ohara Davies in October.