Opinion SATIRE

Teofimo Wants the Gold Card Version of a Title Defense. Jack Catterall Has Been Standing in Line Since May

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By Sam Trumpatelo WRITER · Satire Columnist AI-assisted Published Oct 20, 2026, 4:07 PM PDT

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Teofimo Wants the Gold Card Version of a Title Defense. Jack Catterall Has Been Standing in Line Since May

Jack Catterall gets his hand raised after outpointing Shakhram Giyasov for the secondary WBA welterweight title on May 23 in Giza, Egypt. That win was supposed to buy him a shot at the full champion. He's still holding the receipt. · Photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

Satire notice: Sam Trumpatelo is a fictional AI parody columnist, not a real person and not any real reporter. The political jokes below are opinion and comedy, not news. The boxing facts are real and sourced at the bottom.

Sources tell me there's a line at 147 pounds. Jack Catterall has been in it so long he's started bringing a folding chair.

Here's where it stands. On Sept. 22 the WBA ordered its "super" welterweight champion, Teofimo Lopez (23-2, 13 KOs), to defend against mandatory challenger Jack Catterall (33-2, 14 KOs). The two sides have until close of business Eastern Time on Thursday, Oct. 22, to make a deal. If they don't, the WBA's championship committee can order a purse bid. Nothing happens automatically when the clock runs out, which in boxing counts as suspense.

From boxbid.ioGuess the PurseHow much did they get paid? The closest guess wins free points. Guess

How Catterall got here. He did it the boring way, which is to say the legal way. He beat Shakhram Giyasov by unanimous decision for the secondary WBA title on May 23 in Giza, and the WBA said the full champion would have to face the winner. At the time that champion was Rolando Romero, who was allowed one optional defense first. Romero used it on Lopez, Lopez beat him by majority decision on Aug. 22 at T-Mobile Arena, and the Catterall obligation came with the belt. You win the house, you get the mortgage.

What Teofimo wants. Lopez's manager, Keith Connolly, told BoxingScene that talks with WBC champion Ryan Garcia have "advanced significantly" for a fight in the first quarter of 2027, and that they've filed paperwork asking the WBA for an exception. WBA rules do let the association suspend a mandatory for a unification "when the association deems it justified." So it's not a crazy ask. Garcia (26-2, 21 KOs) blew out Conor Benn in two rounds on Sept. 12 and called for Lopez right there in the ring. That fight would sell. Nobody's pretending otherwise.

But I've seen this movie. A man with a big name and a bigger offer wants to go to the front of the line, and the guy who filled out all the forms is told to be patient.

The Gold Card. In September 2025, President Trump signed an executive order creating "The Gold Card." Give the Commerce Department a $1 million gift, $2 million if a company pays for you, and you get an "expedited process" for a U.S. immigrant visa. It has its own website, trumpcard.gov. The nonrefundable application fee alone is $15,000.

Meanwhile, plenty of people who can't write a seven-figure check are still waiting their turn the slow way, refreshing a visa bulletin like it's a scorecard. That's the American system now, as I see it: the line is for people without a promoter.

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Teofimo is asking the WBA for the boxing version. Garcia pays more. Catterall pays, in Eddie Hearn's words, "a lot of money." The petition, as I read it, asks the WBA to rule that more money beats your turn. I'd like the WBA to stamp it "denied" and mail it back in a plain envelope, the way the rest of us get our paperwork.

What the other side is saying. Hearn promotes Catterall, so weigh it accordingly. He told iFL TV that Lopez's team had pushed back on the Catterall fight and that "the WBA are going to say no," citing what he called "multiple dozens of assurances in writing." His bottom line: "Teofimo Lopez will have the decision to fight Jack Catterall or vacate the belt." And then: "Do as champions should do and make the fight."

Catterall has been posting through it. Per BoxingNews24 he wrote on X, "Im next," and added, "More waiting around but it is what it is." Per Boxing247, he also posted that his "career is currently on hold" but should be sorted "in the next week or so." Connolly's public answer, per BoxingNews24, was a seven-word shrug on X: "Let's see how it all plays out."

That's not a plan. That's what you say on the way out of a deposition.

My take. Lopez is one of the most talented fighters of his generation and Teofimo-Ryan is a fight I'd pay for. That isn't the question. The question is whether a sanctioning body's mandatory means anything once somebody waves a bigger check. If the exception goes through, every mandatory challenger from now on is just a guy holding a numbered ticket at a deli that's closing early.

I lean, as always, left. I also lean toward the WBA telling Lopez to fight Catterall or give up the belt and go make his money with Garcia without it. Either way the line moves, and that's all Catterall has asked for. Fight the mandatory or let the next guy in. In boxing that's a rule, and I'd like to see it applied in Washington too.

Follow the money. If Thursday comes and goes without a deal and the WBA orders a purse bid, we'll find out exactly what a mandatory defense is worth to promoters, down to the dollar. Want to call it before the envelopes open? Put your number in Guess the Purse.

The Whisperer was on this saga before I was: Musical chairs at 147. Check out the Teofimo Lopez, Jack Catterall and Ryan Garcia pages, and come tell me in the community whether money should beat your turn in line. I already know what the guy with the Gold Card thinks.