Josh Warrington is insisting he will stay focused ahead of his next fight, with the Leeds man set to face Kid Galahad in a mandatory defence of his IBF World featherweight title.
Warrington, who outpointed former two-weight king Carl Frampton at Manchester Arena back in December, will come up against the man whose real name is Barry Awad on a date and venue to be confirmed.
It is understood that it will take place in Leeds, with Warrington earning over £1,000,000 for the showdown.
He was originally planning on embarking on a Stateside journey with plans fight the likes of WBO champion Oscar Valdez and WBA ‘Super’ world champion Leo Santa Cruz, but the IBF forced the fight against the Sheffield man on him.
“I spoke to Frank after Christmas and the fight I wanted was Santa Cruz,” said Warrington, who broke a hand in the 10th round against Frampton. “I’d spoken before about fighting Valdez but Santa Cruz is number one in Ring Magazine so I thought ‘why not go right to the top?’.
Warrington described Galahad as “a disgrace to the sport” after he was banned for performance enhancing drugs.
But he has now said that he is in the way of his American dream and that he will move him out of the way before going on to unify and eventually, hopefully, become the world number one at the weight.
He added: “I wanted to be unifying belts but I’ve got Kid Galahad in the way of that now so it’s all the motivation I need.
“I can’t overlook him and I’d never do that with anybody but before I got a world title shot I won the British, European and Commonwealth at featherweight and I beat a lot of opponents who were world-title level, six or seven of them.
“I don’t think he’s earned his stripes.”
Article by: Elliot Foster