Josh Warrington goes into this weekend’s WBA featherweight title fight with Leigh Wood intent on becoming a three-time world champion. He is also desperate to remind people exactly who he is.
It is almost 18 months since Warrington put a brutal saga with Mauricio Lara behind him and stopped Kiko Martinez in seven rounds. He regained his IBF title he initially lost in a jumble of boxing politics but picked up a broken jaw in the process.
Nine months later and physically repaired, Warrington returned to defend the belt against Luis Alberto Lopez.
Maybe he was lacking confidence in the jaw. Maybe he was disappointed about having to take on another relatively unknown Mexican after the Lara episode. Whatever the reason, the Warrington who got into the ring with Lopez didn’t appear to have the same bulletproof mentality of the man who willed himself to the top of the featherweight division.
As the rounds passed, Warrington’s self belief began to return but although he tightened up the scorecards over the second half of the fight, Lopez took a majority decision and his beloved belt.
‘The Leeds Warrior’ has spent the past ten months waiting for an opportunity to redeem himself. During that time, he rediscovered the old Josh Warrington.
“It feels like normal this time,” Warrington told 32Red. “The two fights I had last year, my mindset going into both of them was completely different. I’d beaten Kiko Martinez before but though he was still very dangerous, I was very, very relaxed all the way through the whole build up. The Lopez fight was different. For four or five weeks before it I was having sleepless nights. It was so much of a mental rollercoaster. I can’t put my finger on why but it’s just how it was. This time around I feel like I’m back to how I was before Martinez. I’m very confident. I’m focused on the job and I just cant wait to get in there now."
Being the underdog isn’t a new experience for Warrington. It is 10 years since he first appeared on boxing fans’ radars, upsetting Samir Mouneimne to win the Commonwealth title.
Only those in his camp truly believed he would beat Lee Selby for the IBF title in May 2018 and Carl Frampton was favored to beat him when they met in Manchester later that year. Those old feelings have reemerged and ignited a fire in the 32 year old. He is determined to remind people exactly what he is capable of.
“This is a familiar feeling to being written off before the fights with Lee Selby and Carl Frampton,” he said. “My mindset has certainly matured a lot since then but when people start to write you off and make their own assumptions it motivates me. You know the type of thing, ‘He’s seen better days’ or ‘He might be past it blah, blah, blah.’ Look, Leigh’s three years older than me and they’re putting him on a higher pedestal than me. It gets my back up. I can’t explain it enough.
“I’ve always thrived off the support of the people who get behind me but as soon as someone says that I can’t do it, something else comes out of me. I want to prove to you that I can. I’m constantly trying to impress. I’ve carried that energy throughout this camp. There might be a training session when I feel a bit tired or something like that but you just have to think about something that you’ve read online or something that you’ve heard something say. All of a sudden, you’re pumped and ready to go. That’s the mentality I’ve had right through this camp.”