Josh Warrington vs. Mauricio Lara – Live Results

By Boxing News - 02/13/2021 - Comments

By Barry Holbrook: in a shocking upset, Mauricio Lara (22-2, 15 KOs) brutally knocked out former IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington (30-1, 7 KOs) in the ninth round on Saturday night at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.

The underdog Lara landed a scorching left hook to the head of Warrington in the ninth round that put him down. The referee then halted the fight right away, as Warrington was badly hurt.

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Lara had knocked Lara down earlier in the contest in dropping him hard in the fourth with a left hook after hurting him earlier in the round. In the sixth and eighth, Lara hurt Warrington again with big shots, but somehow he stayed on his feet.

In a troubling move, Lara stood over Warrington and celebrated after he was being checked out from the knockout.

Zelfa Barrett (19-1, 15 KOs) defeated Kiko Martinez by a wide 12 round unanimous decision in a fight that appeared to be much closer than the scores handed down by two of the judges.

They scored it by 116-113, 118-111, and 118-111 score. Boxing News 24 had Barrett winning by a narrow 115-113 score.  Eddie Hearn was visibly upset at the scoring of the fight, feeling that it should have been considerably closer.

Hearn feels that Barrett just edged it, and he thinks it could make things difficult to bring foreign fighters to the UK if they feel they won’t be treated fairly with the judging.

Eddie Hearn angry about scoring

“It was very close. 118-111 is absolutely disgusting for Martinez,” said Hearn. If Zelfa won, he won it by one or two rounds. 118-111 does nobody any favors.

Image: Josh Warrington vs. Mauricio Lara - Live Results

How will we bring world-class fighters to this country with scorecards like that? After all that effort Martinez might as well have boxed off his back foot, and had an easy night,” said Hearn.

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Warrington (30-0, 7 KOs) recently dumped his IBF 126-lb title so that he can go after world champions Can Xu, Gary Russell Jr, and Emanuel Navarrete for higher profile fights.

If Warrington had kept his IBF belt, he would have had to go over old ground by facing Kid Galahad again, a fighter that he already beat two years ago.

Warrington, 30, is facing a big puncher in #10 IBF Lara (21-2, 14 KOs), who is a lot better than his resume would have you believe. Josh will be coming off of a long layoff when he fights tonight against Lara.

The last time Warrington fought was in October 2019, defeating Sofiane Takoucht by a second-round knockout.

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Former IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington will be fighting tonight against #10 IBF Mauricio Lara in a stay busy fight at the Wembley Arena. The fight is being shown on DAZN in the U.S and Sky Sports in the UK. The action kicks off a 2 pm ET.

Boxing News 24 will be giving early results of tonight’s action from the Wembley Arena:

That fight wasn’t competitive in the least, and that’s why it’s important that Warrington get some rounds in tonight. He can’t afford another fast blowout win against a guy that doesn’t belong inside the same ring as him.

If Warrington wins this fight, his next match could be a title shot against WBA ‘regular’ featherweight champion Can Xu. That’s the fight that a lot of boxing fans are looking forward to seeing, as both guys are known for throwing tons of shots.

They would have already fought by now but Xu wants a crowd, which isn’t possible given the pandemic. But by the time Warrington is ready to fight again after tonight, crowds should be allowed back in for sporting events in the UK.

One of Lara’s defeats on his record came earlier in his career in his first professional fight in 2015 against Julio Carabino. Lara has done well since then, apart from a first-round knockout loss he suffered in 2018 against Eliot Chavez.

He was caught cold by Chavez in the first round and he never got ca chance to show his talent.

The undercard for the Warrington vs. Lara fight is a mixed bag of mostly domestic-level fighters. This card is more of a showcase level situation for a lot of prospects and domestic level fighters to show off their skills against guys that don’t match up.