A massive upset in London. In his first fight since voluntarily vacating the IBF featherweight title, Josh Warrington — fighting for the first time in 16 months — started strongly (85-55 overall, 65-47 power in rounds 1-3) – but was never the same after Mauricio Lara floored him with a hook in round four.
Warrington fought bravely, but the unheralded Mexican’s power and precision proved too much as a volley capped by a hook scored the second knockdown and forced referee Howard Foster to wave off the fight 54 seconds into round nine.
In rounds 4-9 Lara led 137-79 overall and 119-59 power and seized final leads of 192-164 overall and 166-124 power as well as 34.4%-33.7% overall and 24%-23% jabs.
Interestingly, Warrington led 40-26 in landed jabs and 40%-37% in power accuracy, but Lara was more active (67.2 punches per round to Warrington’s 58.6) and led 6-3 in the CompuBox round-by-round breakdown of total connects by sweeping the final six rounds.