IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington (29-0, 6 KOs) retained his title via twelve round split decision against Kid Galahad (26-1, 15 KOs) on Saturday night at the FD Arena in Leeds, England.
The usual pressure tactics that Warrington likes to employ were twarted by Galahad who frustrated the champion by distrupting his rhythm, tying him up on the inside whilst landing single shots in an attempt to win rounds.
Warrington albeit slightly disheartened continues to chip away and did have elements of success, in the fifth particularly which witnessed a right hand momentarily daze the challenger and again in the tenth with a left hand acting to rock back the head of Galahad.
In the end it became an anti-climax as the dull encounter went to the scorecards with one judge seeing the contest 115-113 Galahad whilst the other two judged in favour of the champion by scores of 116-112, 116-113.
“I knew it was close, but I thought I landed a lot more cleaner shots,” Warrington said. “You can’t come into the champion’s backyard and pot shot, land single shots, and hope to win it. There was a lot of holding. He was pretty clever with some of the stuff he did inside.”
Focus now shifting over the Atlantic with Leo Santa Cruz, Gary Russell Jr and Oscar Valdez all readying for the challenge to their titles.
“I hope it’s fighting in the U.S. next,” Warrington said on being asked about his next move. “It has to be another big one for me because there’s no one left for me to fight over here [in the U.K.]. With the talk of going to fight in the States, I got carried away with it myself. Instead of taking my time there were times I just switched off.”
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