Jack Catterall’s trainer Jamie Moore is hoping to delay his return to the ring until October, in the belief that he requires a rest off the back of his defeat by Arnold Barboza Jnr.

The junior welterweight, 31, lost to the impressive Barboza Jnr in February, at the conclusion of a run of five fights in under two years.

What Moore considered to be him underperforming that evening has already prompted Catterall’s promoter Eddie Hearn to speak about not giving him a date to fight before September, and while the disciplined Catterall recently told BoxingScene that he hopes to fight in the summer, his trainer is determined to hold him back for as long as he can.

It is in May when Barboza Jnr challenges Teofimo Lopez for the WBO title, but Moore told BoxingScene: “He’ll be back in the gym. [But] I wouldn’t expect him back in the ring until October; November. He’s going to have a bit of a rest in terms of the intensity of the training, but he’ll be ticking over. 

“There’s a few opponents being bandied about. Decent names. Not by any stretch would he want to go into a 10-rounder against nobody. He’ll get straight back in there, and rightly so – he lost a decision for the interim world title. Straight back in there – one of the big names, hopefully. 

“I still feel Jack’s the best 140-fighter in the world. He had an off-night against Barboza. Hindsight’s a great thing, innit? For whatever reason, he just wasn’t on form that night, and when I’ve been looking back on it, he had such a busy year. Three big fights on the trot; Josh Taylor rematch, emotionally and physically was a big thing; in training before that, the fight got postponed; he was training for [Regis] Prograis, and then it got set back and he carried on training, then boxed Prograis, and went straight into the Barboza fight. So it’s three big camps on the trot, at the highest level of the sport. Maybe he was a little bit flat, and stale – the accumulation of all of that. 

“You’re not just talking about the physicality of training; you’re talking about the emotional journey. When you put it on the back of being that active before that as well, I feel he was a little bit flat on the night and I still truly believe that he’s the best 140-pounder in the world.”

Australia’s George Kambosos Jnr, Catterall’s fellow Briton Dalton Smith, and Richardson Hitchins, the IBF champion, have been spoken about by Hearn as potential opponents, and Moore added: “Barboza rematch; Teofimo; we’d take those fights like that. Dalton Smith’s tied up – he’s mandatory for the WBC – he’s got a fight lined up but we’d take that fight. [George] Kambosos, we’d take that fight. [Liam] Paro, we would take that fight. 

“Any of those types of fights, or somebody at that type of level, would be the type of person we’re looking at. Somebody you could look at it as, ‘This is a final eliminator for a world title’. 

“Jack’s so laidback – I wouldn’t say he’s took [losing] well by any stretch of the imagination. He’s disappointed in himself; you can see he’s upset, because no one likes losing. He knows he can do better. Like everything that’s happened during his career where he’s had setbacks, he’s a mentally tough, strong kid – I’ve no doubt he’ll be back. I’ve told him he needs to have a good rest and some family time, because he had such a busy year, but he’ll be alright. He’ll be back. I’m pretty sure by the end of the year he’ll have been involved in another big fight, and be right back in the mix.”

It perhaps was tempting to conclude that Catterall’s ability to make the 140lbs junior-welterweight limit contributed to his performance against Barboza Jnr. The respected Moore – who on Friday guided the cruiserweight Pat Brown to victory over Argentina’s Federico Javier Grandone on his professional debut – however, said: “He’s tight at the weight, like every fighter is, but he’s not struggling. He’s got another good 12 months at the weight. 

“Josh Taylor’s moving up to welterweight and that’s another fight that’s been spoken about, in terms of a trilogy. If that fight came around and it was at welterweight, or at a catchweight in between, we’d look at that. Those are the types of fights Jack wants to be involved in. 

“[But] he’s 31 years old – he hasn’t got years left in his career. He’s probably got a good three or four years. He wants to make the best of the opportunity while he can.”