Via Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn complained last Saturday night after IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington’s decisive 12th round loss to Luis Alberto Lopez at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England.
Hearn thinks Lopez (27-2, 15 KOs) should have been penalized for holding the ball he took in the second half of the game, and he feels that Warrington should have won by 115-113 .
Interestingly, Hearn did not mention Warrington’s blatant foul, with the 29-year-old Lopez’s headbutt, rabbit punch, shoulder and back punch.
Given the way Warrington went all-in with fouls in the second half of the game, you’d think Hearn would mention this because he’s ripe for a disqualification. At a minimum, you could argue that Warrington should have been fined multiple times.
The scores were 115-113, 115-113 for Lopez and 114-114. There would be a big uproar if the judges awarded Warrington the win.
Hearn should be glad the referees did the right thing because there would be a backlash if Warrington won. It won’t be just Warrington being stoned by fans. They will criticize Hearn, Matchroom Boxing and the referees.
“I think it was a great high-level fight. It’s messy, and it’s a war of two halves; it could have gone one of two ways,” said Eddie Hearn Boxing about last Saturday’s bout between IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington and Luis Alberto Lopez.
“I love boxing. It was a disastrous start [for Warrington]. After six innings, the score is 5-1 or 4-2 [in favor of Lopez]. From there, I think Josh Warrington won at least four of the six rounds. But I think with his finish, ‘We could have gotten through this.’
“114-114, I can see. 115-113, I can see either way, really. I feel Lopez may have had a point deducted for holding. He organized a lot. I know they complain about Josh’s head, but Lopez jumps in too. It was a very close fight.
“It depends on him and his family,” Hearn said when asked ‘Where is Warrington going from here?’ “Josh Warrington is still an elite featherweight fighter. It’s not a performance that says he’s deteriorating. He had just fought a sly, clumsy boxer.
“I still want to make that fight [Leo Santa Cruz] because I still think he deserves it, and so do his fans. I also want to see if [Leigh] Wood through [Mauricio] Lara and that fight at the City Ground [Nottingham, England], but we’ll have to see. It was an uphill battle. The first six rounds were very difficult.
“Leigh Wood wants to fight Mauricio Lara, which is good for us or all of us, but it is a very, very difficult fight. But I need to make sure that fight gets resolved, and then we’ll see what happens next for Josh,” Hearn said.
