Warrington vs. Hyland: Josh plans on slugging

By Boxing News - 07/28/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC, #5 IBF #11 WBA featherweight contender Josh Warrington (23-0, 4 KOs) will be inside the ring this Saturday night fighting 32-year-old Patrick Hyland (31-2, 15 KOs) at the First Direct Arena in Leeds. Warrington, 25, wants a world title shot, be it against Gary Russell Jr, Lee Selby or Oscar Valdez.

Rightly or wrongly, Warrington will soon be getting a title shot against one of the champions at featherweight. He might not like the results of the fight, but he’ll get his title shot as long as he gets past former world title challenger Hyland on Saturday night. Warrington is supposed to beat Hyland, but you never know. If Warrington gets too brave, he might run into something. Don’t say I didn’t warn him if that happens.

Personally, I think it’s a good bit of match-making by Warrington’s wily promoter Eddie Hearn in selecting Hyland after his 2nd round knockout loss to Russell Jr. last April. Hyland looked like a yo-yo in that fight in getting dropped three times by Russell Jr. The first knockdown was especially brutal with Russell landing a crushing right hand to the head of Hyland that put him down on all fours on the canvas. The other two knockdowns were little more than icing on the cake for Russell Jr., because Hyland was pretty much finished already for all intents and purposes.

it’s going to be a big fight between me and Patrick. There is no way I am looking at this as an easy fight; it’s definitely my toughest fight to date,” said Warrington to skysports.com. “The fans are all excited. They are desperate for a world title but this is the stumbling block in the way I’ve got to get through this and if I get through, the world title is on the horizon.”

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Yeah, Warrington will get his title shot against one of the champions at featherweight, but he sure as heck isn’t going to beat any of them. Come on, Warrington is little more than a younger version of Hyland. He’s got no business being in the ring with the likes of Russell Jr., Selby, Leo Santa Cruz, Jesus Cuellar and Oscar Valdez. Those are WAY, WAY too good for the likes of Warrington.

I’m just wondering why Hearn isn’t pushing Warrington to move down to super bantamweight or bantamweight. At the very least in those divisions, Warrington’s lack of punching power won’t be as much of a limiting factor for him. Warrington is in the wrong division in my view, because he does not have the power or hand speed to compete with the better fighters at 126.

I don’t even see Warrington being able to compete against some of the contenders like Joseph Diaz, Ronny Rios, Carl Frampton, Jonathon Barros and Matias Rueda. The sanctioning bodies have been very kind to Warrington in giving him a high ranking, but no way do I see him having earned that ranking.

“I am going to have to hit him and hit him hard and slow him down,” Warrington said. “Hopefully the bit of punch power I have might slow him down. I see it as an old bull versus a young bull and the old bull has to have some tricks!”

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Gee, that sounds like a really dumb game plan for the feather-fisted Warrington. I wonder who planted that idea into his head? Was it his trainer? I hope Hearn didn’t tell Warrington to stand and slug with Hyland, because that sounds like a good way for him to get knocked out. Hyland might not be that good, but he can still punch. I thought he looked halfway decent against Russell Jr. until he was hit for the first time.

This sounds like Warrington is really asking for it. Hyland isn’t very good, but he’s got a little bit of pop in his right hand. If Warrington has delusions of grandeur about him being able to do to Hyland what Russell Jr. did, then I can see him getting royally brained and finished off proper. Hyland will take care of Warrington quickly and ruin his dreams of a title shot against one of the champions in the division.

Warrington should play it safe in this fight and look to spoil for 12 rounds and hope that he doesn’t run into anything big from the more experienced, older, harder punching and dare I say more talented Hyland.