Josh Warrington was not the only boxer who was planning a big 2020, but the IBF featherweight champion is still hopeful he can still salvage a successful year despite seeing a dream fight snatched away from him.

This month, Warrington had been due to face Can Wu, the WBA champion from China, in a long sought-after unification fight at the recently refurbished Headingley rugby league stadium in his native Leeds. The coronavirus pandemic put paid to that, but he remains hopeful that he will share a ring with Xu this year and is keen not to waste the downtime before then.

“We were talking about going to Headingley, we were talking about Can Xu, we were talking about unification fights, two years after winning the world title and three defences, it would have been absolutely perfect,” Warrington said to BoxingScene.com.

“I was thinking 2020 was going to be a massive year. I would have a unification fight then go over to the United States and make more history, prove people wrong and win more titles. Now, all of a sudden, we are just guessing at when things could happen.”

Warrington had begun the year hoping a fight with Shakur Stevenson, the WBO champion, would be pinned down. When Stevenson opted on another fight first, however, the Yorkshireman decided the split from Frank Warren, the promoter who had delivered his world title shot and a fight against Carl Frampton in 2018, to re-sign for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom team.

“We were looking at June 6,” Warrington said. “That is what was pencilled in. I was lying in bed the other night thinking about what would the occasion have been like.

“When I signed, it was about 15 weeks from then and I was already fighting fit. It was just then about going into camp, working on the gameplan and sparring.

“I’m not disappointed. I’m in a fortunate position and I still believe the fight will happen. It just gets you going a bit knowing that it is not happening right now.

“I’m not only a boxer, but a boxing fan. I’m not one of those who gets to a level but doesn’t really take much interest… I love it. You think of the young lads and lasses who go to the gym at a young age dreaming of being world champions and fighting on big stages and I’m there now.”

At 29, Warrington does not really have any time to waste, but the downtime has not been going to waste. He was already in good shape, so rather than merely train to get fit, and potentially burn out, he has been concentrating on making technical improvements with his father and trainer Sean O’Hagan.

“I was more or less ticking over from December, waiting to hear some news from Frank,” he said. “Then I moved over, went to Matchroom and was training all through that time. Then we started talking about dates and fights and I am training harder and harder.

“So I am fighting fit there when I am ready to start my camp. I carried on to ticking over until the start of May, when I hit a bit of a lull, so I thought if a camp does come around, I don’t want to be burnt out. So, I have started toing more technical work rather than fitness work. It’s slow and steady, but I am not burning out.”

Despite being a world champion, Warrington believes he still has plenty of improvement in him.

“I can look at some of the best in the world and no one is born absolutely gifted where they can do everything in the textbook,” he said. “You have got to practice, you have to work at it, at the very highest level especially. I have been trying to work at that so when we do get underway, my technique will be that bit sharper and I will be able to do things a bit differently.

“It does get monotonous when you are doing your runs and your circuits and you think ‘I’ve got nothing to aim for’.”

With the UK lockdown starting to ease and behind-closed-doors shows beginning, Warrington has hopes that the Xu fight will take place this year. The chance of it taking place at an outdoor stadium this year seems unlikely now because of the British weather, but if crowds are allowed in the autumn, it could take place in Leeds or Manchester.

A fight with Xu, Warrington believes, would certainly be fan friendly.

“You want to be part of those exciting fights, where the fans are up on their feet throwing the punches with you,” he said. “That is exactly what Can Xu would bring.

“The stats speak for themselves. When you are throwing 1,400 punches in a 12-round fight, you have got a good engine on him. He has said himself he is not the biggest of punchers, but what he lacks in punch power, he makes up for in volume.

“He will try and outwork me. But I feel I have a decent engine as well and I am getting stronger and stronger as the years go by. I expect a very entertaining fight, but I have a feeling that I will knock him out. Him coming forward to me will play into my hands.

“My old fella is always on the phone to me, watching Can Xu on the iPad with something new he has spotted.”

Warrington has spent a lot of his career living down a reputation that he is only a volume puncher. These days he is smarter and hits harder.

“It’s not just a case these days that I am throwing seven or eight punches and just whaling away,” he said. “Now I am picking the shots better, I am sitting on my punches and I am being more accurate, and it has made a difference. Instead of throwing seven or eight light punches, I am throwing three or four heavier one and it has more of an effect.

“I’m at my peak now, I don’t want to have big voids in my career, I want to be part of the big fights and big nights as much as possible. If I could fight three or four times a year, that would be perfect. When I get the chance to box again, though, I will be ready.”

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.