Former world champion Josh Warrington is only a few days away from his scheduled clash with WBA featherweight king Leigh Wood.
The two will collide in Sheffield on Saturday night.
Warrington is looking to bounce back after suffering a twelve round majority decision loss in his last outing, at the hands of current IBF champion Luis Alberto Lopez back in December of last year.
Wood redeemed himself in May, when he dominated Mauricio Lara over twelve rounds to recapture the WBA title in Nottingham.
There has been little trash talk between the two, but Warrington expects fireworks.
“The respect doesn’t matter. Leigh has something I want. I’m jealous, envious of the position he is in. I had a fight with Carl Frampton a few years ago and I would go as far as to say I was a fan of his until I boxed him. The build-up was nothing but amicable and we ended up having the fight of the year. In the first two rounds I absolutely banjo-ed him with one shot,” Warrington told The Mirror.
“But after the fight we embraced and he came into my changing-room, and now I’d go as far as to call him my friend. When it comes to it we’ll have little 8oz gloves on and we’ll be going there to bash each other up.”
The winner of the fight could be in line for a showdown with IBF super featherweight world champion Joe Cordina. Warrington is open to taking that fight – depending on the money presented by promoter Eddie Hearn.
“The Cordina fight depends how much he’s going to pay me. I’ve been making featherweight for a long time so it would be nice to have the luxury to step up. But more than anything I want to go to America. It has been hanging over me a long time. Eddie said it, Frank Warren said it when he promoted me, Eddie said it again and it’s one of the reasons I went back to him. Apart from the heavyweights, who else will take a big fanbase over there? I strongly believe I’ll take some big numbers,” Warrington said.