By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten WBC International featherweight champion Josh Warrington (22-0, 4 KOs) will be facing the tough as nails #13 IBF Hisashi Amagasa (30-5-2, 20 KOs) on April 16 at the First Direct Arena, in Leeds.
This is going to be a difficult fight for the light hitting #3 WBA, #7 IBF, #11 WBA Warrington, because he’ll be giving away three and a half inches in height to the 5’10 ½” Amagasa and considerably more in terms of punching power.
For the 25-year-old Warrington, this may be about as good as it gets. He doesn’t have the punching power and talent to win a world title at featherweight. The 30-year-old Amagasa is about as tough as Warrington can go in my view. I don’t know that Warrington has the talent, size or power to deal with the gigantic Amagasa.
We know that Guillermo Rigondeaux struggled badly against Amagasa in their fight in December of 2014. Amagasa knocked Rigondeaux down twice in the 7th round before Rigondeaux got serious and started boxing him from the outside. Of course, Rigondeaux was trying to slug with Amagasa the entire fight rather than using his normal boxing skills. That made it easy for Amagasa to land his shots.
“This is a massive night for both Josh and Stuart,” said Warrington’s promoter Eddie Hearn to skysports.com. “Josh is hunting a summer clash with IBF champion Lee Selby, so he cannot afford any slip-ups against Japanese banger Amagasa.”
Warrington might be able to box his way to a decision over Amagasa, but it’s not going to be easy. He’s going to have to take some punishment along the way before he can win a decision over him. Forget about getting a knockout. Warrington is too weak, too small, and too limited to score a knockout.
As far as Warrington fighting IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby, that’s a horrible mismatch in my view. Selby is much too good for Warrington. If I’m Hearn, I would look to keep Warrington in his own lane by having him defend his trinket WBC International featherweight title for as long as he can rather than putting him in with a real world champion like Selby. That fight would obviously just be for domestic consumption. It’s just a money fight to attract local fans to the mismatch.
LEEDS:
.@J_Warrington v Amagasa tickets go on sale to Fight Pass members noon tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/mSqMbDefrH
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) February 15, 2016
If Hearn were make the mistake of throwing Warrington in the ring with the other featherweight champions, Vasyl Lomachenko, Gary Russell Jr, Leo Santa Cruz and Jesus Andres Cuellar, I think it would end badly for Warrington. It would just be a horrible mismatch. Selby doesn’t have much punching power, so it’s possible that Warrington might be able to survive the entire 12 rounds after getting clowned the entire time. But it’ll far worse for Warrington if he fights Lomachenko, Santa Cruz, Cuellar and Russell Jr. Those guys would be nailing Warrington with major power shots the entire fight and it would be almost impossible for him to make it out of the fight without getting knocked out.
Amagasa has won his last two fights since losing to Rigondeaux. He recently beat Patomsith Pathompothong and Nathan Bolcio in one-sided fights in Tokyo, Japan.
Warrington defeated Joel Brunker by a 12 round decision last September. Brunker was the same guy that Selby defeated by a 9th round knockout in October 2014. It’s unclear if Hearn is going to continue to match Warrington up against former Selby victims or not. If so, then Hearn will need to put Warrington in with Fernando Montiel and Evgeny Gradovich, because Selby recently beat both of those guys. I’m not sure that Warrington could handle either of those guys though. If he can’t, then Hearn is really going to need to keep Warrington in the slow lane against domestic level fodder rather than fringe contenders.
Warrington brings in a lot of fans for his fights in Leeds. He has wins over guys like Martin Lindsay, Davide Dieli and Edwin Tellez. However, if Hearn has ideas of Warrington winning a world title someday, then I think he’s going to need to get him in the weight room so that he can develop some punching power, because right now, Warrington is too much of a light hitter for him to deal with the current champions. Maybe that will change if he locks himself into the weight room for a few years. I doubt it though. I think Warrington is the finished product.
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