Warrington dreams of bringing fans to Vegas

JOSH WARRINGTON has come a long way since working as a dental technician and fighting journeymen in leisure centres for a few hundred quid.

He was nicknamed the ‘boxing tooth fairy’ because he fixed teeth by day and knocked them out at night.

After 31 wins from 33 professional fights, the IBF world featherweight champion returns to the ring in his home city of Leeds next Saturday to face mandatory challenger Luis Alberto Lopez.

The 32-year-old ‘Leeds Warrior’ is aiming to retain his belt before moving on to a potential unification meeting with Leo Santa Cruz and a trilogy fight with Mauricio Lara. Warrington said: ‘I’m in a position where, if I finish boxing now, I’m comfortable financially.

‘But I still feel I’ve got some boxes I need to tick off and fighting in America has become a bit of an obsession.

‘My fans would love it to happen because I’m their version of Ricky Hatton. A lot of lads my age were too young to watch Leeds United in the Champions League and they say, “Josh, Leeds United can take us back to Europe but you can take us to America”.

‘I went to Vegas to watch [Carl] Frampton and [Leo] Santa Cruz in their rematch and I was stood on a flyover on the strip watching all the fans arriving.

‘I was in casinos seeing posters of the fight everywhere and thought, “I want a bit of this”.’

Warrington, who will be joined on his ring walk by rising Leeds United star Crysencio Summerville, was brought up in a tough part of inner-city Leeds but remains deeply grounded.

He added: ‘Hopefully I’ve shown what can be achieved and people say, “There’s Josh, the lad off the estate who went on to become a world boxing champion.”’