By Charles Brun: In a bit of bad news for the Mauricio Lara vs. Josh Warrington II rematch, Leeds City Council has reportedly rejected a license for Headingley Stadium to stage the fight.
Warrington has chosen to stubbornly ignore his boxing fans’ advice and steam ahead with his plans for a rematch with Lara.
Michael Benson reporting that Leeds City Council has chosen to say no to licensing Headingley Stadium in Leeds for the Lara – Warring 2 fight.
The stadium has a seating capacity of 21,000, and it’s likely that it would be sold out for this fight due to former IBF featherweight champion Warrington’s huge popularity in that city.
Warrington hopes to fight at Headingley Stadium
The 30-year-old Warrington says he’s”frustrated and disappointed,” and says “hopefully this case be overturned and we can have another fantastic night the city can be proud of.”
Given how badly Warrington was knocked out by the hard-hitting 23-year-old Mexican knockout artist Lara last February at the Wembley Arena in London, maybe it’s a good thing that the Leeds City Council has chosen to reject the licensing for the rematch at the Headingley Stadium.
It was painfully obvious from round one that the 5’8″ Lara was just too big, too strong, and too young for the 30-year-old Warrington, who was hurt in the opening moments of the fight.
Each time Warrington attempted to exchange with Lara, he was getting caught with big shots and hurt. The only times in the fight where Warrington wasn’t getting hurt was when he was staying on the outside, playing it safe.
But when he was on the outside, he was ineffective because he couldn’t land against the taller Lara. Indeed, even when Warrington went into his shell to survive in rounds 2 and 3, he was getting nailed by long right hands from Lara.
Interestingly, the Mexican warrior showed the ability to hit Warrington with uppercuts thrown from long range.
Normally, you don’t see fighters get away with throwing uppercuts from the outside, but Lara was doing it throughout the contest and Warrington had no defense.
Is Warrington making a mistake taking rematch?
Lara dropped Warrington in the fourth and the ninth round of the fight on February 13th on DAZN and Sky Sports. In the aftermath of the contest, Warrington’s trainer was criticized by boxing fans on social media for failing to pull him out of the fight in the fourth round.
Warrington was badly hurt in that round, and it was clear from that point that he was fighting on his heels.
Wherever the Lara-Warrington fight winds up, it’s likely to end badly for Warrington because Lara has too much firepower for him. Warrington’s fighting style is that of a brawler, and that’s not going to work against a guy with Lara’s type of size, youth, and power.
It’s widely believed that Warrington will attempt to use an in and out attacking style against Lara to nick rounds and win a decision.
That style likely won’t be fruitful against Lara because he’s going to be on him the entire time, and not letting Warrington come forward the way he wants.
That in and out style only works if your opponent isn’t pressing you 100% of the time.
Lara isn’t going to let Warrington have an inch of breathing room in the rematch, which means he’s going to be a one-sided dogfight like last time. That’s why it’s not a good idea for Warrington to fight Lara again because his style is all wrong for him.
It’s unclear which direction Warrington will take his career if he gets blasted out again by Lara.
I mean, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if Warrington lost to a top 126-lb fighter like Gary Russell Jr or Emmanuel Navarrete, but it’s different when you’re talking about him getting destroyed by a 23-year-old upstart fighter like Lara.