By Scott Gilfoid: If #8 IBF Josh Warrington (21-0 4 KOs) defeats #9 IBF Joel Brunker (28-1, 16 KOs) in their fight on September 5th at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, UK, Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn wants to match Selby against Warrington in a fight at Elland Road that he thinks will attract between 40,000 to 50,000 fans.
Warrington is an unproven fighter with a pretty flimsy resume filled with weaker opposition, and he hasn’t done anything to prove that he deserves a world title shot. Brunker is a guy that was recently beaten by Selby last October via a 9th round stoppage loss.
Brunker came into the fight with a 27-0 record, but he looked absolutely horrible. I couldn’t believe the guy had a record like that based on how he was fighting, but then when you look at Brunker’s resume, you start to understand why he was 27-0. It was filled with fluff opposition, much like Warrington. There’s no there, there.
“Selby v Warrington at Elland Road is a huge fight. It does 40,000 or 50,000 and is a huge, huge fight for British boxing but the pressure is on Josh Warrington right now,” Hearn said to Skysports.com. “Selby did a good job on Brunker and I think if Josh can too, then he proves he’s at world level.”
What I want to know is why is Brunker, 29, suddenly become the gold standard for Hearn in getting world title shots for his fighters? I mean, all you’ve got to do is take a look at one of Brunker’s to realize that the guy has some serious limitations as a fighter.
Why isn’t Hearn matching Warrington up against the likes of the better featherweights in the division like Jhonny Gonzalez, Abner Mares, Leo Santa Cruz, Jayson Velez, Jesus Cuellar, Jonathan Barros, or Nicholas Walters?
I’m not asking for Hearn to throw Warrington in with any of the featherweight world champions. I’m just saying why doesn’t he match Warrington up against the top contenders at 126 instead of dragging out a guy that was recently knocked out by Selby in selecting Brunker for Warrington to fight instead of someone with talent.
I think Warrington would be pretty much destroyed by all of the above mentioned fighters, especially if he were to face Walters, Mares, Santa Cruz and Gonzalez. But Velez, Cuellar and Barros would likely do the job as well. If Hearn really wants to test whether Warrington rates a world title shot against Selby, why isn’t he looking to put him in with someone that has a very, very good chance of beating him?
“Selby against Warrington is a fight that really, really should happen but Josh has to keep winning,” Hearn said. “Lee Selby’s performance against Evgeny Gradovich [to win the IBF title] was fantastic. He proved he’s levels above Josh at the moment and Josh now has to come back with a response by beating Brunker convincingly.”
Instead of Selby looking to get a fight against the light hitting Warrington, he should be trying to fight Walters, Vasyl Lomachenko, Jhonny Gonzalez, Mares or Santa Cruz. I’ d like to see how Selby would do once he starts getting big power shots from Gonzalez and Walters bouncing off his chin.
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