IBF featherweight Title: Josh Warrington suffered just his second loss of his career at the hands of Luis Alberto Lopez, who won the IBF featherweight championship in Leeds with an outstanding performance.
After two judges gave the fight to the Mexican, and one judge gave it to the challenger as a draw, the challenger overcame an early cut to his left eye to surprise the home favourite.
Warrington’s expectations of a 2023 unification match are dashed, and the party is further ruined after the main event was postponed due to England’s World Cup quarterfinal loss to France.
Despite the lively crowd and ring walk, Lopez got out to the better start and was able to nick Warrington in the nose in the first round.
In round two, Lopez required medical attention after the Mexican suffered a gash above his left eye from an unintentional head collision.
Similar comparisons might be made to Warrington’s second match against Mauricio Lara from the previous season, which was adjudged a technical tie early on.
Lopez persisted, however, and seemed unconcerned as his more precise shots caused numerous issues for the home favourite.
In the midst of the fight, Warrington started to find his range, and in the sixth round, he delivered a powerful left hook.
While consistently punishing the British boxer’s body, the challenger Lopez was still grinning and chattering away.
The Mexican remained steady despite a great last round from Warrington to ensure the judges would decide the winner as the tempo picked up in the latter rounds as the pair traded blows.
While two of the scorecards were 115-113 in favour of Lopez, one showed a draw at 114-114, giving the 29-year-old the biggest victory of his career.
“I’m very heartbroken losing my title in such a way, but I want to offer a big thank you to all these for making noise, so thank you,” Warrington said in a statement to DAZN.
“I did want to pursue other interests. It goes without saying that I wanted to visit the (United) States and I still do. Even though I believe I can still defeat one of the other champions, perhaps unifying is going too far. Since I felt a little badly done by there, it goes without saying that I would also have the rematch.
“I’m incredibly happy right now,” Lopez continued. It has taken a lot of time to prepare. This is my moment, and as I indicated earlier, it is the result of my hard work. It makes me happy to be the world champion.
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