True, people were calling for AJ to retire after that defeat though, people high up in the sport were coming out and saying that he should retire. I think Warrington needs to prove to himself that it was just a bad night and an ill judged performance, if he loses he knows he's done anyway, if he wins he'll get his confidence back and move on to some no doubt bigger fights. Not taking a rematch could damage his stock and, more importantly, having that unavenged defeat against someone like Lara hanging over him might not be good for him mentally. I think he needs to try and right the wrong and I think he can, just my opinion of course, I'm not saying I'm right.
Warrington boxes his head off in a landslide one sided 118-110 type fight in the rematch. He's very capable of sticking to a game plan and avenging the defeat. Lara is a big puncher and has a better chin but if Warrington sticks to the boxing and avoids a fight it is straightforward. Lara is a one dimensional slugger.
Warrington’s problem for me was the really old, cheesy boxing saying “don’t hook with a hooker” as usually Warrington can wade in with his fast shots and high work rate and catch his normally straight up boxers easy. Thinking of Warrington’s opposition, his world class wins are Selby, Frampton and Galahad with a few good fringe ones but them three are all upright boxers, Selby a slick mover who was in trouble once caught in Warrington’s ‘blender’ of punches, Galahad who Warrington struggled to pin down but again a similar to Selby style in that one. Frampton a straight forward combination boxer puncher who was caught off guard by the work rate. The brawlers Warrington has beat (Kiko, Hyland, Ceylan) have all either been too slow, not strong enough or simply not talented enough to beat Warrington. This was the first time he has came up against a stone cold puncher and he employed the wrong game plan and suffered for it. If Warrington concentrates on his straight shots, he can get to Lara and beat him. Interestingly, if you watch the fight back, Warrington comes out on his toes behind a high guard and lands a peach of a one-two that catches Lara cleanly. He then pushes him to the corner and has a nice little flurry. It’s later in the round where Josh gets over confident and opens up too much that he gets tagged and hurt, and he never goes back to boxing with straight shots after that. If he can do that, concentrate on the one-twos and not opening himself up with big hooks he can win convincingly.
Did his corner not tell him to not stand in front of Lara and trade? If not, I think he might need to make a training adjustment.
In literally the next sentence I wrote “Galahad who Warrington struggled to pin down” You can argue that he got Selby and Frampton at the right time but at the end of the day at the start of 2018 Frampton was ranked #3 by the ring and Selby #4. The fight for 2018 was Selby vs Frampton - it was THE domestic fight that everyone wanted to see at that time. Warrington beat them both within the same year.
I'm not the type of person to say a fighter should ditch a trainer after a defeat, but if you watch the BT corner highlights of Warrington Galahad, Warrington's Dad seemed clueless. He wasn't really offering any technical advice.
Same in the Mould fight. The "Funny Fatman" routine wears a little thin when his fighters are getting beaten to a pulp.
They both would of stayed at feather if they beat warrington for at least one more fight. Everyone new Selby was tight at the weight but he had been for along time. No one gave jw a chance in that fight.
I did. U can check my posts b4 the fight. I'd said he wud beat both. But the majority didn't give him a chance