Josh Warrington vs Dennis Ceylan IBF eliminator set

Promoter Frank Warren has announced that Josh Warrington and Dennis Ceylan are signed for an IBF featherweight title eliminator on October 21 at First Direct Arena in Warrington’s hometown of Leeds, England.

Warrington (25-0, 5 KO) is a former Commonwealth featherweight champion and has wins over Joel Brunker, Hisashi Amagasa, Patrick Hyland, and former world titleholder Kiko Martinez in his last four fights.

Denmark’s Ceylan (18-0-2, 8 KO) is a former Olympian, competing at London 2012, and also the European featherweight champion, winning the vacant title against Ryan Walsh last October.

“This is a proper fight and one that I am massively up for,” said Warrington. “Ceylan is an undefeated former European Champion but that doesn’t matter to me. The way I see it is that he’s the one I have to beat to make myself the mandatory challenger. This won’t be an easy fight but there are no easy fights at this level and with so much a stake.”

Warrington says he wanted a fight with IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby, but was turned down. Now, he has a chance to force the issue.

“With Selby not taking a fight with me, it’s left me annoyed and even more hungry to produce a massive performance on October 21. You’re going to see the best ever version of Josh Warrington against Ceylan. Like I keep saying, the fight with Selby is the one I have always wanted, let’s see if he is still the champion when I’m the mandatory challenger.”

“Josh Warrington is a good technical fighter,” said Ceylan. “I look forward to testing my skills against him. He is a top-level opponent and I know I will have to be at my best to beat him.

‘’I always enjoy fighting British opponents. British guys are always very good, and when I fight good opponents, it brings out the best in me. I think Josh might be my toughest opponent to date so I will need to be on top of my game.

‘’My last fight was against another English guy, Isaac Lowe. He wasn’t as a good as Josh. He was more of a street type guy who just wanted to fight. Josh is more of a clever, technical fighter so it will be a different challenge and a more difficult fight.”

British junior welterweight champion Tyrone Nurse (35-2-2, 7 KO) will defend his title against Jack Catterall (18-0, 10 KO) in the co-feature, J.J. Metcalf (16-0, 8 KO) will face Damon Jones (15-1, 3 KO) in a British junior middleweight title eliminator, and several more prospects will be in action on the card.