Warrior Josh eyes shot at British title

Warrington outboxed Slough’s Ian Bailey to record a comprehensive unanimous points victory in his English title defence and is now planning to make the step up to British level.

Warrington will have a keen eye on this weekend’s British title fight between Barry’s Lee Selby and Cromar’s Ryan Walsh.

Victory for Selby would see him win the Lonsdale belt outright and he has stated he will vacate the British title at that point, which could leave Warrington in line for a shot.

Speaking after last Friday’s win over Bailey, the 22-year-old Leeds Warrior said: “We are onwards and upwards and will see what happens with the British title.

“There are big things happening at the Central, with Gary Sykes getting his British title shot and hopefully we will have a couple of British champions from the gym.”

He added: “I want that British title and if I were to fight for the Lonsdale belt I’d train so hard, I’d train my body not to get tired.

“I want it so badly.”

Speaking of his landslide win over Bailey, Warrington said: “I definitely thought it was the best performance of my career.

“I’ve had to start stepping it up now and take what I’ve been doing in the gym into fight night.

“I thought about what I was doing instead of getting into a war and it turned out to be a good performance.”

Warrington added: “I’ve got into a habit of playing to the crowd and if I caught him with a shot and the roar went up I started to see red and went to war a bit.

“He’s a tough kid and came to fight and he tried to come to wear me down.

“But with every performance I am getting stronger and this training camp I’ve been breaking records with Mark (Hurley) and John (Tallant).

“My dad (trainer Sean O’Hagan) has been with me since day one and it’s been a great team effort.”

He added: “There’s not just been one person having an input there’s four or five heads coming together to put ideas in so it all adds up to a successful team.”