KID GALAHAD has been getting tips on how to beat Josh Warrington from featherweight legend Naseem Hamed.
Mandatory contender Galahad challenges the IBF featherweight champion at First Direct Arena Leeds on Saturday June 15, after Warrington’s promoter Frank Warren won the purse bids.
Photo: Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
Galahad (26-0, 15 KOs) was encouraged to box by Naz when he was a kid and sent him to the famous Ingle gym in Sheffield.
Now Naz is playing his part in causing the downfall of Warrington (28-0, 6 KOs), and is expected ringside on fight night supporting him.
Sheffield’s Galahad, 29, said: “I don’t want to go into too much detail, but Naz rang me, said a few things and I’ve taken them in.
“Naz would’ve loved facing someone like Josh and beaten him in no more than three rounds.
“It will last no more than six when I take Josh’s title.”
Warrington, 28, caused an upset when he won the title last May outpointing Lee Selby in front of 25,000 fans at Elland Road and in December beat Carl Frampton over 12 rounds in a classic first defence.
Galahad added: “Listen, he has two had good wins against Selby and Frampton.
“I sparred Lee when he boxed Josh and he was a completely different fighter. He was dead at the weight, but it is what is.
“I’ve got to give Josh credit and I expect him to be even better than those two performances, but I believe I am better than him in every single department.”
Saunders suspects a genuine possibility of Warrington overlooking Kid Galahad
BILLY JOE SAUNDERS suspects there is the genuine possibility of Josh Warrington overlooking the threat presented by his mandatory challenger Kid Galahad when the pair face each other with the IBF world featherweight title at stake at the FD Arena in Leeds on June 15.
Setting aside the natural bias Saunders might have for his former landlord, also known as Barry Awad, during his lengthy stint training at the Ingle Gym in Sheffield, the former middleweight world champion questions whether the Leeds man will summon up sufficient motivation for what is likely to be a highly-charged Yorkshire derby.
Saunders’ thinking is that, having chalked up such impressive victories over illustrious and favoured opponents in Lee Selby and Carl Frampton, will Warrington show the same desire against a challenger he twice defeated as an amateur and clearly doesn’t hold the highest regard for?
“Warrington is a brilliant fighter and he has had a couple of good performances but sometimes when you have a couple of good ones – I’ve been there and done it – your mind and everything else isn’t quite working the same,” considered Saunders, who returns to the ring to fight for the WBO Interim world super middleweight title against the No.1 ranked Shefat Isufi at Stevenage FC on May 18.
“He’s boxed Selby and Frampton and now he is looking at Barry thinking ‘oh it’s Kid Galahad, I beat him a couple of times’. Is that going to be decisive here, I don’t know.”
Saunders added that the will to win of his former sidekick, the also unbeaten Galahad, will be a key factor in the outcome, which he believes will result in a new champion being crowned.
“I think it is going to be a good fight but, for me, Barry has got a bit too much determination in him to lose. He has got that warrior code in him and I think he is going to do the job – I know he is going to do the job.”
Josh Warrington plans on nullifying Kid Galahad’s game
JOSH WARRINGTON HAS mocked the suggestion that his June 15 world title challenger Kid Galahad is an awkward customer in the ring.
The Yorkshire pair – Warrington from Leeds and Galahad hailing from Sheffield – will trade shots for the IBF featherweight belt at the FD Arena in Leeds and the world champion completely rejects the train of thought that the tricky approach of his mandatory challenger will present him with punching puzzles he is unable to solve.
“People talk about him being awkward… He is awkward if you f**king let him be!” scoffed the Leeds Warrior, who holds a perfect professional record of 28-0. “I don’t see him as awkward and we have already looked at ways we can nullify that.”
The 28-year-old continued by adding there is no supporting evidence to back up Galahad’s claim to be a featherweight force who will inflict a one-sided ‘beatdown’ to rip the title from its present owner.
“He isn’t an awkward fighter, he believes he is a super-strong this, that and the other. What are you going off? The muppets he has knocked over? The Eastern European taxi drivers… Come on man.
“I’ve proven that I can stand at the top level in terms of toe-to-toe, physicality as well. I don’t think he has, so we have yet to see, but I don’t think he is as strong as me. I don’t think any featherweight in the world is.”
Meanwhile, Warrington is also tiring of the notion that he is a sort of one-trick pony with the single asset of possessing long-life batteries; although he does acknowledge an upside in that his wider skillset is ignored by the opposition.
“People talk about me as if I just have this fantastic engine. Yeah, I do have a good engine, but it is a positive that they don’t look at what else I do too much and I know I can adapt.
“Lee Selby and Carl Frampton are two very different fighters and I was able to adapt, like I was on my road up to a world title, boxing different folk of different sizes and styles.
“I’m experienced and know how to do the 12 rounds well.”
A top quality undercard will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
Tickets for Warrington v Galahad are available via Ticketmaster and are priced as below:
£450 – Hospitality
£300 – Floor
£200 – Floor
£150 – Floor
£100 – Floor/Tier
£75 – Tier
£50 – Tier
£40 – Tier
