IBF World featherweight champion Josh Warrington (29-0, 6 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a close 12 round split decision win over the defensive-minded Kid Galahad (26-115 KOs) on Saturday night at the First Direct Arena, in Leeds, UK.
The scores were 116-112, 116-113 for Warrington, and 115-113 for Galahad. It was fight that could have gone either way. The judges gave Warrington, 29, the victory, because he showed that he wanted it more. Galahad waited too long to get his offense in gear, and he ended up giving away the fight. Galahad showed a lot that he can build on with this fight. If Galahad had been able to throw a few more punches in every round, he might have won the fight.
Warrington was coming forward initiating all the exchanges in the fight, and that was the telling factor in him getting the decision. Galahad was moving too much, and trying hard to get out of the way of Warrington’s shots. You can’t blame Galahad for not wanting to mix it up a lot, because he didn’t possess the offense to stay in there and slug with Warrington the way he needed to for him to win the fight. That’s why he lost the fight. Galahad wasn’t aggressive enough tonight.
The positives for Warrington:
Josh Warrington took the fight to Galahad the entire time, and didn’t have a reverse gear. Warrington isn’t the biggest puncher n the featherweight division, but he makes up for his lack of power with his blue collar attitude of wanting to work harder than his opponent. That’s the difference between the two fighters tonight. Warrington wanted it more than Galahad, and the judges responded to that by giving him the win.
The negative from Warrington’s performance:
The lack of punching power was what made the fight more difficult than it should have been for Warrington tonight. If he could punch harder, he would have moved Galahad down. There’s no question about that. Galahad is a talented guy, but he can’t punch, and he’ll be food for the harder hitters in the 126 pound division like Oscar Valdez, Shakur Stevenson, Eduardo A. Ramirez, Jessie Magdaleno, Gary Russell Jr., and Scott Quigg.
The good news for Warrington is his management will likely never dare putting him in with any of those fighters. But what’s bad about that is his resume will remain largely a weak one. Warrington’s best wins thus far were against Carl Frampton and Galahad. That’s it.