Tonight in Leeds, UK half of the city will come to a stand still when their favourite son Josh Warrington steps between the ropes once more to face Dennis Tuberion in an official eliminator for the WBC featherweight title, live on Sky Sports 2.
The unbeaten Yorkshireman is well known for the large and loyal base of support he enjoys in his home town and it’s a safe bet the roof of the First Direct Arena will come off when he makes his ring walk.
Warrington (20-0, 4ko) whilst not a noted puncher at the weight, possesses a fantastic work rate, and has been working his way consistently up the rankings capturing British, Commonwealth and European featherweight championships along the way.
He stopped Italian Davide Dieli to capture the latter belt inside 4 dominant rounds last October and last boxed in February on the Abraham v Smith 2 undercard in Germany where he knocked out Nicaragua’s Edwin Tellez.
At yesterday’s weigh in Warrington came face to face with Filipino Tuberion for the first time, and as his nice guy reputation suggests, he shook hands with his opponent and remained professional ahead of tonight’s contest.
Tuberion (19-3,8ko) is something of an unknown quantity, having never boxed outside of his native Phillippines, and will represent a possible banana skin for Warrington, who said of his opponent;
“I’ve got to be on my game. I know that I’m stepping up in level. This is also a massive opportunity for him. (Tuberion) These guys coming out of the Phillippines are fighting for their lives.”
Its fantastic to see a young British fighter doing so well and victory tonight will take Warrington one step closer to America’s Gary Russell Jr, who won the WBC version of the featherweight crown last month against Jhonny Gonzalez in Las Vegas. It will also further cement his place as the 2nd best 126lb fighter in Britain behind Welshman Lee Selby, who himself is to challenge for the IBF version of that title in May. A future clash between those two somewhere down the line will be a mouth watering prospect for the UK fans.
The card as a whole has been plagued by uncertainty this week as to whether the scheduled British light-welterweight title fight that was originally to be Chris Jenkins v Willie Limond, will even take place at all.
Veteran Scot Limond pulled out injured and vacated his title before being replaced by Yorkshire’s Tyrone Nurse. However just this week, unbeaten Welsh prospect Jenkins (16-0, 8ko) also withdrew from the contest after suffering a bout of food poisoning, leaving Nurse in the lurch and without an opponent. There is still no news regarding an opponent for Nurse, and at such short notice one has to wonder who would step into such a fight?
There are also appearances on the card by Leed’s Bob Ajisafe, Liverpool’s Rocky Fielding and a fight for the WBC International Super Featherweight strap between Martin J Ward and Maxi Hughes. Callum Johnson and young Cruiserweight prospect Isaac Chamberlain will also fight on the card.
“We Are Leeds” is live on Sky Sports 2 in the UK from 7.30pm
Twitter @undilutedpoison
