Josh Warrington cruised to a dominant second-round knockout victory in his IBF world featherweight title defence against France’s Sofiane Takoucht in Leeds.
Warrington was determined to make amends for his scrappy split-decision victory over Kid Galahad in June and was expected to struggle against the veteran southpaw, who came into the fight with 35 wins from his 39 bouts.
But the Leeds fighter shone from the the opening bell in front of his home crowd at the First Direct Arena and showed why he is one of the leading boxers at the nine-stone division after extending his perfect record to 30-0.
Warrington set his sights on becoming Leeds’s first unified world champion after his comfortable knockout victory and is ready to travel anywhere around the globe to fulfil his dream.
Speaking to BT Sport, Warrington said: “I’ve made history at Elland Road – Leeds’s first world champion. It would be nice to be Leeds’s first unified world champion at Elland Road and after that, we will go travelling all over the world. We will go on tour.
“I’ve made it very clear. My first defence was Carl Frampton, my second fight was the mandatory challenger. I’m open to any of them. I’m leaving my options open and anyone who wants it, I’m here.
“I’ve got to face the best in the business, not just in the country but the world. And I know these lot (the fans) will go wherever I want. Everyone has the passports at the ready.
“So I can say just a massive thank you to the fans. Be ready, 2020, I’m coming for you all.”
In the fight, Takoucht’s awkward style saw Warrington initially struggle for his range before the defending champion pinned his French challenger against the ropes with a fine four-shot combination.
Warrington then landed a flush right hand just before the bell rang at the end of the first round and it was one-way traffic thereafter.
Warrington increased the intensity as he swamped all over Takoucht, with the 33-year-old struggling to keep the Yorkshireman at bay.
A left to the head and right to the body saw Takoucht hit the canvas for the first time before Warrington fired another barrage of hooks to send his challenger crashing down again with over a minute to go in the second round.
Takoucht was scrambling to hold off another onslaught as Warrington sensed blood but the referee stepped in and waved off the contest to the eruption of the Leeds crowd.
Warrington admitted his scrappy fight against Galahad last time was a “wake-up call” and he had to be fierce against his French challenger after missing out on a unification fight.
“There was nothing personal between myself and Takoucht but I think I took my frustration on not getting the unification shot and it was a nice day at the office,” he said.
“It just shows that everything we have been working on has worked. The last fight gave us all a wake-up call. We have worked against southpaws in the last few weeks and I’m glad it paid off.
“The fans are fantastic. Always turn out in their numbers, support me through thick and thin and I can only repay them with a top performance.”
Warrington listed Oscar Valdez and Leo Santa Cruz as possible next opponents, despite their intentions to move up to super featherweight.
China’s Can Xu, who holds the WBA ‘regular’ world featherweight strap, is the most likely candidate for Warrington, while he also hinted at unifying against WBC champion Gary Russell Jr or taking on fellow American Shakur Stevenson, who is fighting Joet Gonzalez for the WBO belt later this month.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here