‘They want to attack on sight’ – Eddie Hearn believes Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall rematch contains more hatred than any fight he’s promoted

Eddie Hearn has told talkSPORT that Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall is among the fiercest rivalries he's ever promoted.

The bitter enemies are set to rematch on Saturday night in Leeds after their controversial first clash in 2022.

Taylor won that bout by split decision, despite many feeling Catterall deserved the decision.

This led to a lot of animosity building between the pair, which has only intensified as injuries to the Scot have delayed their second meeting on several occasions since.

Now, they are finally set to meet again and Hearn told talkSPORT Breakfast on Friday: "It's a real hatred. The first fight was very controversial.

"A lot of people feel that Jack Catterall should've been undisputed world champion that night and for the last two years everyone's been talking about it.

"It's got quite personal between everybody - the fighters and even their families.

"Tomorrow night we put it right, it's gonna be a massive night. British Fight of the Year so far over here. I think we're gonna have a great fight."

Asked how this compares to other bitter rivalries he's staged, Hearn ranked it at the top as he said: "We've done Carl Froch vs George Groves, Tony Bellew vs Nathan Cleverly, and Scott Quigg vs Carl Frampton was a good example.

"But this is the first one where they actually wanna attack each other on sight.

"People say, 'Oh he's talking it up again,' but honestly when these two come together face-to-face they just wanna grab each other around the throat.

"We've seen it in the build-up at the press conferences.

"The press conference was a bit more chilled because I think the coaches said, 'Look, save your energy, you're gonna have a 12-round war on Saturday night, be ready.'

"But the great thing about boxing - and some people don't get it - is that after the fight the respect's there.

"You saw it between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk last week.

"You can say what you want, but after the battle hands are shaken and the respect is there.

"These guys say, 'No there won't be,' but you will see it in Leeds, there'll always be respect between fighters.