Josh Warrington will face Mauricio Lara for the second time this year after losing by stoppage to him back in February. Following the loss Warrington tells ESPN that he felt a lot of embarrassment for the loss — to the point where he didn’t leave the house for six weeks as he licked his wounds. Warrington says he suffered a fractured jaw, a perforated ear drum, an injured shoulder, and also an elbow surgery.
“I didn’t really leave the house because I was kind of embarrassed and I didn’t want to bump into folk and them asking me ‘what happened Josh?’
Warrington goes on to explain that after moping around for several weeks he eventually had a pep talk with himself to shake out of the funk he was in, realizing he’s hardly the first fighter to take a tough loss but that doesn’t at all mean he doesn’t have the capacity to come back strong. And that’s exactly what Warrington looks to do in this weekend’s rematch against Lara.
“It got to a stage where I thought I could do something about it or just keep moping about, so I dusted myself off and got back in the gym when I could. I thought I’m not the only fighter in boxing who has lost and that’s where my mindset and motivation changed.”
So this weekend Warrington aims to turn things around by avenging his loss in his hometown of Leeds. With Warrington taking time to reflect on his last fight and the way he performed, he says he obviously made silly mistakes by standing in front of his opponent and certainly won’t try to replicate that approach. If Warrington can turn things around, this weekend is the time to prove it.