EYES ON THE PRIZE
Galahad won’t be distracted
KID GALAHAD won’t make the same mistake against Kiko Martinez on Saturday that his old foe Josh Warrington did in his first fight against Mauricio Lara. Warrington, by his own admission, was distracted by the prospect of world-title fights beyond Lara in their initial clash in February.
And the shock defeat he suffered at the hands of the Mexican blew apart his hopes of taking on Leo Santa Cruz, Gary Russell Junior and Can Xu later this year.
IBF featherweight champion Galahad – real name Barry Awad – hopes to go toe-to-toe with the division’s other world champions next year. But he knows any opportunities to do so will be lost if he slips up against Martinez in his home city of Sheffield.
Galahad, 31, said: “Josh Warrington wasn’t the first and he’s not going to be the last fighter to take his eye off the ball.
“Just a few weeks ago we had Mikey Garcia, who’s in the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters, and he got beaten by Sandor Martin from Spain.
“Who would ever think he’d get beaten by him? But he took his eye off the ball and got beat.
“You can’t afford to make mistakes, you have to be on it all the time.
“It’s not like football where you might lose this one and the next one you can win.
“No, you might lose and that’s it, your career could be over or you could end up getting killed.”
Galahad lost towarrington in 2019 but now holds the title the Leeds fighter vacated ahead of his first meeting with Lara.
He added: “I learned so much from the fight against Josh, it has made me into a better fighter. I can’t see another featherweight who can beat me.
“Of course, I want the unifications but I have to make sure I do a job on Martinez. He can punch, he’s strong – it’s not going to be a walkover job.”