Warrington bowed gracefully
SunSport’s Wally Downes Jr weighs up Josh Warrington’s ill-fated swansong against Anthony Cacace.
Josh Warrington’s top-flight boxing career appears to be over after he suffered his third fight on the spin.
The Leeds legend was highlighted by Anthony Cacace, whose IBF world super-featherweight title was banned as Warrington lost his last two.
It went a long way, the caring dad of two girls was typically brave.
But he failed and – for the sake of his health and his legacy – it’s time to hope he hangs up after a brilliant career.
After a decent fight between two friends, the judges scored it: 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111.
The opener was not crafty, but it was even.
The 33-year-old Yorkshireman did his signature Mexican impersonation and stood up and walked forward throwing hooks.
But Belfast’s Cacace caught and countered with a long right.
Warrington’s head was thrown back on the opening but he was unhurt, clipping Cacace’s thick beard with a left hook.
Another early bird, Cacace played Warrington’s game up close and personal. The two hard nuts ran, squeezed and avoided each other as soon as they found an inch of space.
Cacace was brave enough to surrender his vast physical advantages – he looked like a midget compared to his enemy.
The IBF champion boxed out his fight in the third but was always tempted to come back in a fiery fight where Warrington thrives.
The stylish warriors touched gloves at the end of the third – a gloriously bizarre symbol of the sport, after battling each other for the previous nine minutes.
Warrington got greedy in the fourth punching Cacace’s ribs until he spotted an opening and punched back.
Wazza was injured and needed to recover, but he quickly recovered.
But with every punch and second, Cacace’s rarer strikes seemed like punishing ones.
Warrington has never been a heavy hitter, so a step up will never help him increase his peak again.
The fifth and sixth rounds went the same way, try as he might, Warrington couldn’t make a dent in the hairy giant who towered over him and leathered him whenever he was in range.
It was competitive and exciting, but there was a sense of inevitability that Warrington were on course for a horror hat-trick of defeats.
The only unknown was whether it would be a point loss or a late stoppage.
Rounds eight and nine were hard to watch, not because Warrington was getting injured, but because – as darkness fell on Wembley – we watched the light of his career slowly fade.
Three defeats on the spin is a tough sell, even for a local legend who packed Leeds Arena, Elland Road and Headingley in his heyday.
The twelfth couldn’t come soon enough – and then he disappeared. Warrington as a brilliant little wrecking ball, the dental technician turned world champion had to accept his fourth loss in six fights.
As usual, he tried to get out on his shield, but luckily it ended with a good, fair run and a big hug between the two brilliant veterans.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education