The Leeds man put on a great show this afternoon.
Much to my surprise, favored former two weight world titleholder Carl Frampton (26-2, 15 KOs) seemed overwhelmed at times by defending titleholder Josh Warrington (28-0, 6 KOs) in the first two rounds of the fight. Warrington came forward with such intensity and in such volume that Frampton just had no answers. In fact, he seemed a little buzzed in both rounds despite Warrington traditionally showing next to no power.
The third round did slow down a bit, however. “The Jackal” was allowed to get back into it at the more measured pace. Warrington still probably edged the third on his volume, but he didn’t win round four. It seemed like round four was the three minute set in which Carl Frampton was starting to figure things out. The Irish fighter got his right hand going on his own terms from range while tying Warrington up on the inside.
The success was short lived though. Frampton wasn’t getting rolled over in the fifth like he was in the first two rounds, but the titleholder turned the volume back up to clearly take round five. The Jackal would just freeze in place more or less when Warrington would unleash a long combination. While round six was a slower paced round, the Leeds man still clearly took it. He was just the much fresher man in there.
I had Josh Warrington up five rounds to one after the halfway point of the world title main event. Carl Frampton was not looking good in there.
There was an exchange in the seventh that I thought was very telling. At one point late in the round the two men found themselves leaning on each other on the inside. Josh Warrington was looking to throw in combination in there while Carl Frampton was just trying to wing one shot and tie up. That wasn’t necessarily the wrong strategy, but the tired looking way he weakly tried to grab on his plain looked bad. Still, it was a closer round than most. Though he continued to look heavy and tired at times, Carl did also have a nice eighth round by trying to work in between Warrington’s wider shots.
And despite how the body languages had looked, it was actually Josh Warrington who was slowing down in round nine. Frampton boxed quite well at range and also worked the body inside without getting swarmed. The momentum had turned in the fight going into the double digit rounds. Of course because I noted this, the momentum switched back in the tenth as the fight returned to being a war. Frampton had certainly settled in well, but he still struggled to deal when Josh Warrington unleashed an extended combination.
My scorecard showed Josh Warrington up six rounds to four going into the championship rounds. He sealed his win on at least my assessment in the eleventh as well. It was a close one, but Warrington just outlanded Frampton over the three minutes. He also took the twelfth on the strength of several big right hands both up and downstairs.
I scored this one 116-112 for Josh Warrington. He showed a lot in this one. His brawling volume was there as always, of course, but the way the Leeds titleholder used his strength and angles to make up for a lack of traditional punching power versus a world class opponent was great to watch.
Official cards came back 116-113 and 116-112 twice for the right man. Post fight both men were extremely classy in praising one another. Frampton even conceded defeat and openly said that Warrington was the better fighter. He wouldn’t commit to fighting in the future at this point either.
