Ten rounds of Josh Warrington pressure were all Denmark’s Dennis Ceylan could take today in Leeds. After a slow start, Warrington took over the fight at the midpoint and slowly worked his Danish foe over to earn his spot as the IBF mandatory challenger. Jack Catterall picked up a career best win in the co-feature as well.
Josh Warrington (26-0, 6 KOs) is not someone I have been too high on as a potential future contender. Despite the rare stoppage win for the Leeds fighter, I remain in that mindset. At this sort of European level, his lack of power and strength can be overcome by technical skill, a decent level athleticism, and pure intensity. That is what went down in this fight.
It took about four rounds for Dennis Ceylan (18-1-2, 9 KOs) to begin to succumb to the constant pressure. At first he fought reasonably well. I thought he won the third clearly and I had it two rounds to two. From the fifth round on, however, he probably didn’t have much of an argument to win a round. A few were still close, but Warrington edged them clean to my eyes.
In the tenth round, the same shots that had been landing but bouncing off Ceylan suddenly dropped him. He got up and was quickly put down again by another swarm. This was death by one thousand little cuts, more or less.
With the win Josh Warrington is now the mandatory challenger to Lee Selby’s IBF belt. Selby himself isn’t much above British level and has had rather favorable matchups to win and hold onto his belt. If there is a strap that Warrington can win, it is Selby’s. Plus, that fight should make some real money in the UK whether they hold it in Wales or Leeds.
In the co-main event, Jack Catterall (19-0, 10 KOs) picked up the British junior welterweight belt from Tyrone Nurse (35-3-2, 7 KOs) by unanimous decision. Catterall looked a little drained and tired in this fight, but he is a full class above Nurse and still had a relatively easy time. I thought the widest card, the 118-110, was the fairest. I do question how long Catterall can stay at 140 lbs, but for now he has his domestic belt and can set his sights on rising to the world scene.
