Josh is out to land a big one
LEEDS warrior Josh Warrington is still trying to find the right kind of bait to hook his next opponent after Shakur Stevenson slipped the net.
The IBF featherweight champion, 29, had been hoping for a unification fight against WBO king Stevenson in May.
But the American has agreed to face Colombian Miguel Marriaga next month, meaning it is now highly unlikely he will be out again two months later.
That leaves Warrington back at square one and he is having to keep his mind active by focusing on his new tropical fish tank.
He said: “I love football but I haven’t played since 2016 because my insurance policy wouldn’t cover me if I got injured.
“I’m trying to get into golf as I like to try learning new things.
“I’ve just bought a fish tank, it has been sat there for five months with no water in it but I’m reading up on it.
“It’ll be for tropical fish, freshwater fish – my dad has a tank with marine fish in it but I don’t want to follow his route.
“Two minutes and he’ll be telling me what to do with it.”
The fact that Warrington’s fellow world champions don’t seem to want to fight him is frustrating.
He said: “There’s the ideal world but in boxing, as I found out many years ago, things never run smoothly.
“All you can do is win your fights in order to progress.
“But even having a massive fanbase, an unbeaten record and bringing a title to the table doesn’t always get you what you want.
“We’re trying to get unification fights sorted but since me winning the world title, two of the other champions, Leo Santa Cruz and Oscar Valdez, have moved up.
“All I want to do in my next fight is unify the division, to win another world title.” fourth Test against South Africa only to pull out on the morning, faces three months on the sidelines with a return pencilled in for the start of the English Test summer in June.
It means having to miss out on an £800,000 contract with IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals although he is understood to have insured part of that sum.
Root believes the rest can do him good after a whirlwind opening to his England career.
He said: “He’s had a phenomenal start on the international stage and should be extremely proud of what he has achieved already in his short career.
“That’s mental fatigue as well as physical. I think it will be good for him to have a mental break to get some time away from the game to get refreshed.
“We have just got to make sure now from the position we’re in we build him up very well from the start of the summer and make sure when that first opportunity for him to play comes he’s absolutely ready to go.
“From then on we can then look forward and start to really manage him efficiently.”
England want Archer fit and firing for both Tests and the World T20 in Australia in October so it appears likely he will play little or no 50-over cricket until 2023 World Cup preparations get under way.
Root will play his last white-ball action until July when England attempt to square the ODI series against South Africa at The Wanderers in Johannesburg today. After losing the series opener in Cape Town, the second match was abandoned in Durban on Friday with just 11.2 overs of play possible.
“It’s disappointing to be sat here in the position that we are,” Root said.
“We were well under par in the first game and probably not as good as we would have liked in Durban in the small bit that we did play.
“So we’ll be keen to bounce back pretty strong.
“Hopefully the weather can stay away and we’ll be keen to get an opportunity to try and level up the series with a victory.”
England are set to name the squad for next month’s two-Test tour of Sri Lanka tomorrow.
And it is likely to be missing the names of Jimmy Anderson and Moeen Ali despite the pair indicating they are keen to be considered.
Anderson flew home from South Africa after the second Test in Cape Town with an injury to his ribs while Ali has been in self-imposed exile from Test cricket.
Fast bowler Dale Steyn has been recalled by the Proteas for the T20 action against England, starting on Wednesday but Kagiso Rabada and Faf Du Plessis are not in the 16-man
squad.