I’LL ENDJOSH THIS ELL
Josh: My dream is for Bielsa to carry my belt after regaining title... and to stop knife crime
IF Josh Warrington wins back his IBF world featherweight title, he will ask former Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa to carry his belt into the ring ahead of his first defence.
The 31-year-old was as gutted as all of his fellow Leeds fans when Bielsa was sacked earlier this month.
And he would be thrilled to give the Argentine an opportunity to say farewell to a good number of the Elland Road faithful if he comes through his clash with Kiko Martinez on Saturday.
Warrington said: “It would have been an absolutely huge honour to have him there on Saturday, but I’ve nowt for him to carry this time.
“He’d just be walking out alongside me. But if I was to win the belt it’d be a huge honour to have him there next time.
“Just to have him back and give him a proper send-off, whether it meant him getting in the ring before or after the fight, would be brilliant, so let’s see what happens.”
Saturday’s fight is the second meeting between Warrington and Spanish star Martinez, with the Yorkshire favourite winning their first battle five years ago. He added: “We had a good ding-dong and I knew in beating him that I could go on and win a world title.
“There’ll be some of the same game plan but a bit different as well. I know it would be easy to say, ‘Let’s just do what we did last time.’
“But a lot of people thought it was close, including him, he thought he’d won it.
“When you start standing toe-to-toe with him, you have to do it smart, you have to do it cultured.
“If you start doing it wild, which I kind of did in that fight, that’s when you’re playing his game.”
For 36-year-old Martinez, this fight will be his first defence of Warrington’s old title, which he took from Kid Galahad in November.
Warrington said: “It was a gamble but I knew what I was dong when I vacated it.
Charity
“But it has gone full circle and I have a chance to win my own belt back and get that position of power back.
“It’ll be like being reacquainted with an old mate, like it never left me.”
During the build-up to his clash with Martinez, Warrington joined forces with the charity Streetdoctors in a bid to help educate young people in responding to knife attacks.
He added: “Unfortunately, knife crime is a growing problem, not just in Leeds but nationwide.
“I came across Streetdoctors and what they do, and it’s not often kids get to learn first aid, let alone what to do if one of their friends gets knocked out or stabbed.
“It sounds gruesome, but you can’t sweep under the carpet that things like this happen.
“The right thing is to stop knife crime and we must try from the top to the bottom, from Government to social workers.
“But if people do get caught in such scenarios we then need to make sure they know what they are going to do.”
Just to have him back and give him a send-off before or after the fight would be brilliant, so let’s see what happens