Josh Warrington (30-1-1, 7 KOs) looked like a large billy goat tonight in ramming heads repeatedly with Mauricio Lara (23-2-1, 16 KOs) in a fight that halted after two rounds and ruled a technical draw at Headingley Stadium in Leeds, England.
Warrington accidentally banged heads with Lara, 23, in the second round, cutting the Mexican knockout artist over his left eye. The cut was examined after the round by the ringside doctor, who advised that the fight be halted.
Warrington landed a few nice shots in round one that was barely enough to give him the round. Lara was landing, but he failed to throw enough punches to give him the round. His shots were definitely much harder, as he was knocking Warrington off balance when he’d connect.
The second round was marked by the repeated clashes of heads between the two fighters, as Warrington coming at Lara with his head down in a ramming position.
It looked to this writer like Warrington was intentionally trying to head-butt. I have no idea if that was his purpose, but it looked that way to me because it happened repeatedly. We didn’t see that in the previous fight between them. Warrington looked more like a goat than a fighter in the second round.
After a particularly head-butt from Warrington, Lara winched in pain, bending over at the waist. The referee stopped the action, saw the cut, and motioned to the scorer’s table that Lara had been cut from a head-butt.
When the action finally resumed, Lara appeared to be furious, and he went after Warrington, nailing him with vicious shots to the head. Warrington looked afraid as he tried to get away from Lara.
Warrington could obviously see the damage he’d done with his head, and he looked afraid because Lara was loading up on everything he throws with knockout intentions. From that point until the end of the round, the fight resembled the first one between them, with Lara beating up on the much weaker Warrington with massive shots.
It was a strange fight compared to their previous one last February, as Warrington looked like he was lowering his head and charging Lara like a football player on the offensive line.
After repeatedly clashes of heads, Lara was finally cut in the second, but, surprisingly, it didn’t happen earlier because Warrington was coming at him like a Billy goat.
Whether intentional or not, Warrington fought in a way that a cut was going to happen sooner or later. There was no way that Lara would last long with Warrington coming forward with his head that way.
Frankly, I don’t see any point in Warrington and Lara fighting ever again. I mean, if Warrington fights the way he did tonight with him lowering his head and smashing into the face of Lara, there’s no point in the fighting again because it’ll have the same result.
I’m just saying. To me, it looked like Warrington didn’t want to get knocked out, so he fought in a way that made sure he wouldn’t lose. That’s how I saw the fight. It looked like Warrington wanted the easy way out.
