Having watched the fight twice now a few things really stand out: -Josh was not himself. Lara is allegedly a big puncher and maybe he truly is but Josh looked well off the pace more or less from the opening round. That can be put down to a combination of injury (he had various niggles apparently), weight issues and inactivity but he seemed to lack the energy, drive and power he shows, especially early on in fights. -His punch resistance was far, far worse than usual. Again, Lara was an unknown fighter plucked out of obscurity, a cherry pick basically. I don't think he hits so much harder than Frampton/Galahad but Josh was getting buzzed and visible distressed by punches as early as the 2nd round- this is a fighter who is not exactly elusive so he is no stranger to being hit clean. -Every single interview he did the 2 weeks leading up to this fight was about what would come AFTER it, not the fight itself. It reminded me so much of Joshua vs Ruiz where Andy Ruiz was almost regarded as a non entity, an annoying inconvenience. I'm sure Josh looked past Lara and mentally did not have the same intensity he needed to have in his previous fights. It really showed in his performance. -4th round onwards it was not a nice fight to watch. Warrington was in a strange kind of 'auto pilot' mode where he was going through the motions but physically and mentally he was gone. He landed a few good punches even with that being said, but still, a more compassionate corner would have pulled him out. He clearly wasn't right. I'm not his biggest fan, he was never a fighter I followed that closely but I hope he can come back from this and there is no long term damage. He took an almighty beating on Saturday.
One stat that flashed up during the fight struck me as significant. Lara had fought five times in the period since Josh last stepped in the ring. Maybe complacency had set in with JW or he and his team were believing their own hype? I don't think this is necessarily a Matchroom error, even if their may be inquests within their headquarters. JW didn't look himself from the opening bell. If he was half as good as they've been making out he should've at least given a better account of himself. As it was he looked a shadow of the fighter from 2 years ago. The Warrington team decision making is terrible across the board. From a position of strength after the Frampton win he's now been the beneficiary of questionable judging in the Galahad fight, looked unimpressive in a subsequent outing, dumped the belt he'd strived to obtain rather than giving Galahad the shot he was entitled to and now he's been monstered by a hitherto unheralded 1/25 shot.
Not for one minute do I believe weight was the reason for his defeat but I think he's gone past the point where he needed to step up a weight. Turned 30 and still making the same weight he was making in 2009...that is barmy. He lost because his mindset wasn't right but he's not going to possess the same power or durability as he did a couple of years ago.
Yes lara fighting 5 times between Warrington and his last fight was something that stuck out to me as well. Lara had prepared for Warrington a lot better than the other way round. I'm usually gutted when 1 of ours get beat but the whole build up and everything was about whats next. Some good points have been made on here.
I am not sure what the problem is. I certainly didn't want to tune in to see another snooze fest win for the house boxer. If there were more of these surprise 50/50 (or in this case, it looked a lot 'worse' than that) pairings, then the sport would be better off.
If I tried to get down to the same weight I was in 2009, I'd be a skinny gibbering mess mate. Beats being a fat gibbering mess I suppose, but I wouldn't be as quick, durable, or in any shape to fight.
Haha, I know what you mean. I'd have to lose 3 stone to get down to the weight I was back then. I'd look like a POW.
You've touched on this before and your absolutely right. I think part of the issue is we get a lot of fighters who end up as beltholders. Then they end up keeping the title as a cash out chip. The American fighters tend to fly through the weights, as soon as they know they weight is factoring on performance, they tend to move up in weight or they do it before they get to that stage. Callus Smith is a prime example. Could of easily been matched to fight Kovalev off the back of his SMW WBSS win. Could of got him at the right time too. I mean he had the ability and status to go straight into a title fight at LHW. Instead he stays at the weight, looks terrible in his last two fights, now who wants to fight him and it's already damaged him for when he moves up. Lee Selby is another example. Should of moved up one weight class years ago, then maybe at lightweight after.
While you can point to questionable matchmaking stylewise, ultimately you shouldn't need to "protect" a guy who is supposed to be the top dog in the division. These things happen in boxing though. Fighters can rapidly improve and rapidly deteriorate, and this can happen completely away from the public eye. Warrington is at the age where he can slip overnight, and Lara at the point where he could have just physically matured into a different fighter. We see so little of fighters in action compared to other sports, that the form book can be very difficult to read. At this point we don't know how much of what happened is down to Warrington declining, Lara improving or a combination of both. I do think though that as boxing fans we focus too much on the negative, and look for reasons why a fighter lost rather than why the other guy won. Credit to Lara, he was remarkably composed on a far bigger stage than anything he's fought on before. He reminded me a bit of Goyo Vargas against Hodkinson all those years ago - one of those physically strong, heavy handed Mexican hombres who is applying constant pressure even when being outworked. Time will tell whether he will be a one-hit wonder, or turn out to be a player at this level.
Warrington should have been stopped on his feet in the 4th, his legs were completely gone and his eyes were looking in different directions. Foster has been quick to jump in before but here when a fighter is seriously hurt he lets him continue, I know Warrington was the home fighter but he was in no condition to continue and ended up on oxygen. Some consistency please Howard.
He has explained his reasoning to the board yesterday. He said that Josh was regularly saying “I’m fine Howard” which is taken as a good sign as he’s referring to him by name. He said he had concerns over the jaw injury but Josh was talking in the corner and to his opponent regularly so he gave him the benefit of the doubt understanding what was potentially riding on the contest.
