Josh Warrington desperate to avoid another ‘stinker’ with Kid Galahad

The Leeds Warrior successfully defended his belt against the Sheffield-based fighter via a split decision last June and Galahad is Warrington’s next mandatory defence for his IBF belt.

Warrington is set to face Can Xu in a featherweight unification bout at Headingley later this year, providing that social conditions allow with all boxing events currently suspended by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Galahad returned to number one in the IBF rankings with a dominant victory over Claudio Marrero in February, with the Dominican Republican’s corner calling the fight off after eight rounds.

But Warrington admits he is in no rush to fight Galahad again as he already sees it as a “box ticked”.

“I wouldn’t want to fight him because it is a box ticked and fighting that kind of style is never going to be a fight of the year,” said Warrington.

“It is never going to be that fight where you look back and think that it is one you want to see again.

“Not only that, I don’t like his arrogance and the person he has become and the character who he is.

“If that’s all show, whatever. I don’t like it.

“Without me, his career his kind of irrelevant.

“No one is going to pay to watch him fight anyone else unless it involves myself.

“That is not me blowing smoke up my backside but he fights on everyone else’s undercards when he has got normal fights on.”

Warrington has vowed to knock out Galahad if he was required to participate in a rematch. Warrington is the only blemish on Galahad’s record, with the 30-year-old winning 27 of his 28 fights.

Warrington beat the former British, Commonwealth and European super-bantamweight champion twice when the pair met at amateur level and believes a knockout will silence the doubters once and for all.

“If they put it on me, which it is looking like they will do, then I will have to take care of business,” he added.

“I have beat him three times in total, including the amateur days and I would beat him again. It wouldn’t be an entertaining fight but I would be looking to knock him out to silence everybody.

“But, like I say, he is not top of my list, to be honest.

“If I had it my own way, I would want to go on and fight the other champions.”

Warrington is undefeated in 30 professional bouts and wants the remainder of his fights to be remembered for the right reasons after describing his last meeting with Galahad as a “stinker”.

“This is the sport, it is an entertainment business. People remember the exciting fights,” continued Warrington, who most recently defended his world title with a second-round stoppage against Sofiane Takoucht in October.

“There is a part of the build-up to it which can be remembered for right or wrong reasons.

“The Galahad fight had a lot of build-up because there was a lot of animosity there, a lot of needle. But the fight turned out to be a stinker.”

Warrington’s successful title defence against Northern Irishman Carl Frampton was named as the British fight of the year after the pair went hell for leather for 12 rounds in Manchester in December, 2018.

With professional fighters limited to roughly two fights per calendar year, Warrington is eager to not “waste” one of those against a man he has already beaten.

He added: “This window of being a professional isn’t very long.

“You only fight two times a year at this stage.

“You have got camps to prepare for and injuries start creeping in at the latter stage of your career.

“You have got to sell shows, so these things take time.

“It results in only fighting a couple of times a year.

“You don’t want to waste one of those fights on a stinker.

“If all my fights to the end of my career are memorable ones I will be a happy man.”

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor