Sunday Punch: Josh Warrington’s tune-up fight turns into shocking upset

Mauricio Lara pulled off boxing’s first massive upset of 2021.

Normally I make Sunday Punch a dig into the archives but this weekend is a rare exception just to showcase the extraordinary result that occurred in England on Saturday.

Josh Warrington (30-1, 7 KOs) was unable to land a fight in 2020 due to the pandemic, and in the process he vacated his IBF featherweight title as a means of escaping the restrictive sanctioning bodies and chase bigger matchups in 2021. So logically he got his tune-up bout against an unheralded Mexican fighter named Mauricio Lara (22-2, 15 KOs), who was a heavy puncher but also didn’t have any notable wins at a world level.

Lara came into this as a 12-to-1 underdog on some betting syndicates and Warrington could’ve been had in the -1800 range. This should’ve been a “get some rounds in” win for the Leeds native and then potentially taking on Gary Russell Jr or some other big names at 126 lbs.

Well none of that is happening any time soon.

Lara’s left hook damn near couldn’t miss and Warrington was sensationally dropped in the 4th round off of that punch. He survived the round but this has been roundly criticized for continuing into the 5th, because Warrington’s legs were g-o-n-e.

Warrington did well to fight back but he was offensively outgunned by Lara and another series of hooks felled him in the 9th round and he was down and out. Referee Howard Foster called it off and just like that you have boxing’s first huge shock of 2021.

Just imagine that if Warrington had just made this a regular title defense we could’ve seen Lara as a major featherweight champ in the most unlikely of circumstances. Instead he has taken out one of the top 126 lbs boxers in the world and may have to fight him again in a rematch (and still with no belt at stake), but he’s made a name for himself thanks to this incredible upset.