Battlelines: Josh Warrington - Leeds First Direct Arena

Saturday  saw a blistering night of explosive boxing the hopefully cements Leeds First Direct Arena as a venue of choice for Matchroom Boxing, the promoters of this event, but also crowned Leeds’ very own Josh Warrington the new European Featherweight Champion  amongst wild  scenes that were beamed around the world. The world know Leeds and Leeds knows boxing…

This was the second night of Boxing, with Josh having successfully defended his Commonwealth Featherweight title in May. That fight was on the undercard that day but the seeds were sown for this night, ticket sales very healthy with buoyant walk up sales. The interest in this fight had been huge, with public workouts and weigh-ins across the city igniting interest in unusual quarters.

We are of course fiercely loyal to our home city but Eddie Hearn’s’ boxing and the Arena look a match made in heaven, rocking and bouncing in support of Leeds United fan Josh long before his main event fight.

Former two-weight world champion Ricky Burns made a less than convincing debut in the light-welterweight division, securing a 79-71 points win against Frenchman Alexandre Lepelley. He floored his opponent in the opening round with a right hook though to these eyes there was more than a hint of a slip or over balance rather that power that put him down, but he struggled to impose himself and, although he deserved his victory, was far from his best. The size of the scoring gap surprised some but given the flooring and the Frenchman having received a dubious point deduction, it wasn't too far wide of the mark in our opinion.

The quickest bout of the night went to Blackpool's Bryan Rose, fighting for the first time since losing his light-middleweight world title shot to Demetrius Andrade, barely breaking a sweat, recording a first-round knockout victory over Argentina's Ignacio Lucero Fraga


Earlier hotly tipped Huddersfield boxer Tyrone Nurse was up against Derby's Dave Ryan for the vacant Commonwealth light-welterweight title. A proper 12 round slugfest ensued and by his own admission later, that’s not his game, Undoubtedly he hurt Ryan, his eye closing early on but full credit for going toe to toe. A fiercely fought battle that Tyrone lost on points. One to watch though, he will be back and fancies another crack.


By now we had been joined in the press area by Massimo Cellino, the erstwhile President of our beloved Leeds United, which camp did he have a foot in we wondered given Josh was fighting an Italian, The LUFC connection though was there as photos emerged later of him being invited in to meet Josh pre-fight. Elsewhere various other LUFC legends were in evidence with Gary McAllister keenly watching with us ringside.

Led out by Leeds Rhinos Jamie Peacock and former Leeds United player Dominic Matteo – he who you may recall “scored a f****** great goal, in the San Siro”, Josh had the walk on music to really ramp the crowd up even more – LUFC anthem Marching On Together mixed with the Kaiser Chiefs hit I Predict A Riot.



Josh came out with real steel in his eyes, that energy from the fans powering him out of his corner. That first round was his, the second a little more measured but in the third you could feel the temperature rising a little, some searching jabs and a great work rate which ultimately led to Dieli hitting the canvas in the fourth round. Taking almost the full count he looked out of it to me but continued, one final barrage from Warrington and the towel was in. Josh jumped with joy as the Arena erupted again. Warrington, 23, also holds the British and Commonwealth belts is now unbeaten in his 19 professional fights and picked up his third belt in 12 months.

After the fight, promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed that Boxing would return to the Arena soon and paid tribute to the fantastic atmosphere the fans had created. We will be sure via our publications and here, to ensure we tip you when this is announced, we cannot recommend these Matchroom Boxing events highly enough, slick, professional and one hell of a night out.

On a side note we offered exclusive preferential rates in our partner hotels in combination with this fight which sold out quickly. If you would be interested in this, without obligation please let me know as we have the potential to up our allocation.

For further information on future Matchroom Boxing events, please visit http://www.matchroomboxing.com/ Or follow on twitter @matchroomboxing