WARRINGTON SETS NEXT DEFENCE
While Carl Frampton signs a deal with Top Rank, writes John Dennen
IBF featherweight champion Josh
Warrington will next defend against mandatory challenger Kid Galahad. The two will box on June 15 at the Leeds Arena in Warrington’s home town.
The champion, with his sights set on the other titlists in his division, was initially frustrated with having to fight Galahad (Barry Awad). “It is one of those things. It is what it is. I’ve had my little sulk about it. For me, if I could have my own way, I’d go straight in with [Leo] Santa Cruz or Oscar Valdez or Gary Russell. I fight any one of the champions tomorrow. I just want to fight these big names. It’s what the sport needs. It needs the big fights and the healthy competition. But with that being said I understand how the mandatory system works, it gives fighters below an opportunity,” Warrington told Boxing
News. “It’s annoying because of the way Kid Galahad is, his character. He’s a bit of a **bhead. He’s had that [doping violation], he’s boxed muppets. Alright he won his final eliminator and he’s there but the way he conducts himself after being banned for two years [later reduced by six months] and still acting like a **bhead. The stuff that he says and the way that he’s gone about trying to hype up this fight – just all a bit sour.”
Unifying however remains his goal. “Just the talk of it there; Warringtonvaldez or Warringtonsanta Cruz it gives me shivers. Just picturing what the posters would be like, what the press conferences would be like, what kind of fight we’d have. I want another belt,” he said. “Chin Barry and that’s what I want by the end of the year.”
Beating Carl Frampton in December took Warrington to another level. “I’m constantly improving, I’m constantly learning. I’m just reaching my peak years now,” he said. “It wasn’t a bad performance. I did what I had to do to win. There were a few different ways we were going to approach that fight. The fast start was definitely needed to throw Frampton out of his gameplan. I think the first two rounds kind of set the tempo for the rest of the fight. I think I left a big mark on him in the first two rounds. I think everything changed from from then, certainly his gameplan and his tactics. If anything maybe I could have sat down and tried to land a clean one instead of throwing so many for accumulation and looked to get him out early doors. But with that being said it made for a fantastic fight over the 12 round distance and made it entertaining.”
Frampton has been reviewing their fight himself. It left him “annoyed really more than anything,” he told BN. “In my head,” he continued, “I had it a lot more brutal than what it was watching it back. I thought it was a complete beatdown. There’s simple things I could do, to flip the result on its head… I don’t want to be one of these deluded boxers who keep going on ‘I can beat the world’ but I feel like I could beat Josh Warrington with a different approach to the fight.”
The Belfast star will continue boxing and has signed a deal to be co-promoted by American powerhouse Top Rank along with his UK promoter Frank Warren. It leaves him eyeing a potential clash with the WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez, most likely to take place in America. “Very dangerous, he’s a big puncher but I think, if I get back to doing what I can do best, someone like Valdez suits me,” Frampton said. “Good puncher, big puncher but if I get up on my toes and move around he’s pretty easily hit. Although he beat up Scott Quigg, but Quigg had some success in that fight. I think that Valdez’s style suits me.”
‘BOXING NEEDS THE BIG FIGHTS AND THE HEALTHY COMPETITION’