By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten former IBF World Featherweight Champion Josh Warrington of Leeds, England takes on Mauricio Lara of Mexico at Wembley Arena in London this Saturday, Feb. 13th. The 12-round bout will be shown on DAZN in North America while fans in the UK and Ireland can catch it on Sky Sports Arena and Main Event. Warrington last fought in October, 2019 when he stopped Sofiane Takoucht in the second round. Lara was last in action in December when he beat Sergio Puente via a 10-round unanimous decision.
The 30 -year-old Warrington enters the contest with a perfect record of 30-0 with 7 Kos. Yes, that’s just seven stoppages which means he’s not going to bee too much of a threat to Lara when it comes to power with a current knockout ratio of just 23.3 per cent. However, I thought the same thing in his last outing against Takoucht and Warrington disposed of him in under 360 seconds. So, perhaps Lara shouldn’t just wade in while not respecting his power.
Warrington won the IBF title when he beat Lee Selby by split decision in May, 2019 and then defended it against Carl Frampton by unanimous decision in December and Kid Galahad by split decision in June, 2019 before taking out Takoucht. However, he then gave up the belt so this is basically a must-win situation if he hopes to get a shot against a titleholder.
Warrington stands 5-feet-7-inches tall with a 67-inch reach. He turned pro in 2009 and has boxed 231 rounds since. He’s also captured several regional and minor titles including the English, British, Commonwealth, European and WBC International Featherweight Titles. Warrington has fought all his bouts in his homeland with his most recognizable foes so far being Galahad, Frampton, Selby, Patrick Hyland, Rendall Munroe, Martin Lindsay, Hisashi Amagasa, Kiko Martinez and Dennis Ceylan.
Warrington’s a fine boxer with a solid chin and heart. He may lack knockout power, but he managed to wobble Frampton a couple of times and took out Takoucht so perhaps he’s been working on his power. He’s been out of action for about 16 months so he’s definitely had the time to work on it. He’s now stopped three of his last seven opponents and if he can add some power to the rest of his skills he should remain a formidable opponent for anybody.
As for Lara, he’s just 22 years old and made his pro debut back in October, 2015 as a teenager and has boxed 101 rounds since. Unfortunately we don’t really know how he stacks up size-wise with Warrington as there’s no height and reach information available. What we do know though is that he carries around a record of 21-2 with 14 Kos. He’s got decent power with a current knockout ratio of 58.3 per cent.
Lara’s defeats came at the hands of Julio Carabino by four-round split decision in his pro debut and he was stopped in 50 seconds by Eliot Chavez in May, 2018. He also fought to a no-contest last July after halting Alejandro Palmero in the first round. However, the result was struck from the record since there was no commission present to overrule the bout as it took place during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Lara had stopped Palmero in the fourth round just five months earlier.
But while Warrington has been inactive for well over a year, Lara fought four times last year, even though one of the bouts didn’t count, and was in action five times in 2019. Of course, the level of opposition wasn’t the greatest but all opponents entered the ring with winning records. This will be just his second fight outside of Mexico as he previously beat Eduardo Estela in Argentina in one of his 2019 tilts.
Prediction…
Warrington’s silenced the naysayers throughout his career but his inaction won’t help against a boxer who’s kept busy and is eight years younger. Lara’s been 10 rounds just once and that was in his last fight. And speaking of rounds, it’s unclear if this is a 10 or 12-round battle as some outlets list it for 10 and Boxrec has it down for 12. Either way, Lara can’t try to load up on power shots and leave himself open while Warrington needs to outwork him with volume punching. Lara sometimes has the tendency to throw power shots and not enough of anything else. Warrington surprised a lot of people with his wins over Selby, Frampton and Galahad and all three were pretty close battles. Not much is known about Lara but I expect Warrington to have his hands full but come out on top.
