“I expect Josh Warrington to smash him.”
That’s the opinion of Steve Wood, Warrington’s manager, when asked about his fighter’s chances against Mauricio Lara this weekend at Headingley.
The fight, exclusively live on DAZN, sees the Leeds hero aim to gain revenge against the Mexican after getting stopped earlier this year.
Wood, who guided Warrington to a featherweight world title, was distraught when Lara caused arguably the upset of 2021 in February.
The Mexican fighter couldn’t miss the target all night and his heavy punches eventually took their toll by the ninth round. Wood believes a hard period outside of the ring caught up with his fighter.
“It wasn’t the best camp, to be honest,” said Wood when speaking to DAZN. “All the Covid stuff was still going on. Josh was still feeling the impact from an elbow injury.
“Don’t forget, he’s a fighter who feeds off the energy from the crowd and he’s fighting in front of an empty arena with no noise whatsoever.
“I’ve watched Josh all his career and I like to think that I’d know if something was up. From the first bell I could tell he wasn’t himself and I’ve mentioned the reasons why. We’ve got the rematch and it’s a chance for Josh to put everything right and get back in the mix for the big fights.”
With the fight fast approaching, Wood is massively confident despite how the first fight unfolded. Lara was in control from the first bell and it wasn’t a shocking result that was caused by one punch. How does Warrington settle the score?
“Josh shouldn’t have been in the ring that night, looking back, and it still took Lara nine rounds to get him out of there," he said.
“Any decent fighter would've got the job done in five rounds because Josh was in no position to fight after the fourth when he was dropped.
"You’ll see the best version of Josh in this fight and then we’ll get him back as world champion.”