Josh Warrington exclusive diary: We’re training to do a real job

In some ways, this fight with Barry from Sheffield (Kid Galahad) feels similar to the one I had with Dennis Ceylan back in October 2017. That was a final eliminator for Lee Selby’s IBF world title and I knew that if I got through it, the thing I’d always wanted was waiting for me. There was absolutely no way I was going to lose.

This is just the same. Barry is standing right in the way of the massive unification fights, the Ring magazine title belt, and the big nights in America that I’ve always dreamt of. This time it isn’t Selby waiting for me, it’s the likes of Leo Santa Cruz and Oscar Valdez. I can see the golden highlands and all I have to do to reach them is get past this fella. Josh fights Kid Galahad at the Leeds Arena on the 15th of June – find all the latest betting here.

As if that wasn’t enough of a motivation for me, the way Barry has acted since the fight was announced and some of the things he’s said has meant that there was never any chance whatsoever of me taking him lightly.

I’ve said time and time again what I think about the failed drug test but he just isn’t a nice bloke and even now I’m hearing things that make me even more determined to beat him. People like him shouldn’t be in the sport.

We aren’t just training to beat him, we’re training to do a real job on him.

Training-wise, everything is on course and I’m exactly where I need to be. We’re just under three weeks away from the big night and everything we’ve learned in the previous training camps has come together.

All the members of the team know and understand their roles and I’d say we’ve got this down to a tee now. My numbers in the gym are all on track and I’m fully into the groove in sparring and getting the rounds in. We’re preparing for everything Galahad might try on the night.

In the build up to the fight you’ll be able to get to know the ‘Unusual Suspects’ that make up my team a little bit better in an exclusive 32Red video.

The big night will be here before I know it so until then, it’s just a case of sticking to the hard work and making sure that we do everything properly. Seeing the Mighty Whites fall short in the play-off semi finals was hard to take after the season we’d had and it’d been my hope that we’d finally get promoted back to the Premier League in the same twelve months that I won my world title.

I promise I’ll give Leeds something to cheer on June 15th though.

Me and my manager, Steve Wood, flew over to Las Vegas to watch Leo Santa Cruz fight Carl Frampton recently. We’d just landed and we’re in a taxi from the airport. The driver asks us where we’re from and Steve says in his accent: ‘I’m from Manchester and he’s from Leeds.’ The driver said ‘Manchester? You guys must know Ricky Hatton’ and started talking about how great it was when Ricky and the Brits were there and how people still talk about it as if it was yesterday.

Apparently, whenever there’s a big fight, those days still get mentioned. It gave me a little buzz listening to it and there’s just something special about being around Las Vegas during fight week isn’t there?

Seeing the buses with advertisements all over them and the big LED displays with the fighters on them, I got carried away with all the big fight buzz. I even bought a Frampton t-shirt. I remember thinking that I fancied a bit of this. We’re nearly in the position to make that happen and this tube from Sheffield isn’t gonna stop me.

And still!

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