Jack Catterall will get another shot at a world title when he meets Shakhram Giyasov for the vacant WBA regular welterweight championship. The bout was cleared after the WBA moved Rolando Romero to super champion status, turning what was set to be a title eliminator into a full world title fight.
Catterall, 32, brings a 32-2 record into the contest and is chasing a third opportunity to become a world champion. He has only ever lost in world title fights, including a 12-round split decision to Arnold Barboza in February 2025. But the Briton arrives with some momentum after back-to-back wins over Harlem Eubank and Ekow Essuman, and he is coming off his first stoppage victory since 2019.
The timing matters because Catterall is still adjusting to life at 147 pounds. This will be just his third fight at welterweight, making the physical edge one of the key questions in the matchup. He has built a career on getting close to the top without quite reaching it, and the vacant belt gives him another direct route to the kind of night that has so far escaped him.
Giyasov, meanwhile, is unbeaten at 17-0 and enters as the WBA’s No. 1 contender. The former Olympic silver medalist stopped Frank Ocampo in the fourth round in April 2025, but that result also underlined a quieter truth about his recent run: he has only one knockout in his last six fights. That is a reminder that the Uzbek boxer has been winning, but not always in a way that shuts the door on hard rounds or late pressure.
The contrast is sharp. Catterall is the smaller welterweight, the proven campaigner who has twice fallen short at the highest level. Giyasov is the unbeaten contender with amateur pedigree and ranking position on his side. The vacant title is there because Romero moved up, but the fight itself will be decided by whether Catterall can turn another championship chance into the one result that has eluded him, or whether Giyasov leaves his first professional defeat on the table and keeps his perfect record intact.
