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To put it mildly, it wasn’t a pretty fight, but Josh Warrington left First Direct Arena in his hometown of Leeds, England, still holding the IBF featherweight title, retaining on split decision scores over Kid Galahad.
Judges had the fight 115-113 for Galahad and 116-112 and 116-113 for Warrington, who improves to 29-0 (6 KO) with the win, while Galahad drops to 26-1 (15 KO) with his first pro defeat.
Galahad seemed to maybe build up a bit of an early lead, but it wasn’t really so much anything he was doing on offense or even on defense, but simply a crafty, clinch-heavy approach that nullified Warrington’s usual aggression.
But as the fight wore on, Warrington was able to get at least a bit more done, and Galahad did even less. In the end, I had the fight even, 114-114, which is about how I felt as a fan, that nobody really won this fight.
Warrington said after the bout that his goal now is to come to the US and face one of the other titleholders. Gary Russell Jr has the WBC, Leo Santa Cruz the WBA, and Oscar Valdez the WBO. Valdez seems headed for a fight with Carl Frampton, Russell has called out Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruz sometimes smiles on Inside PBC Boxing.