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Josh Warrington admits that a summer fight with Leigh Wood looks unlikely now as he recovers from a broken jaw.
Warrington suffered the injury moments before his seventh-round stoppage of Kiko Martinez to regain his IBF featherweight title last weekend.
But, as well as a liquid diet, Warrington is not allowed to go to the gym for six weeks, which virtually rules out a summer fight with Wood, the WBA regular champion, who wants to fight outdoors at the home ground of Nottingham Forest.
“It’s frustrating because I never stopped training from the second Lara fight,” Warrington said. “I was back in the gym after a few weeks. I was training all the way through Christmas until last weekend.
“In my head I was going to have a week off, give myself a holiday, have a bit of sun, recharge the batteries and then I thought I’d be out in June time and then October, I thought I’d be out at least three times this year.”
But it became clear pretty quickly after Warrington won that his plans would have to be put on the backburner.
“I’ve got a broken jaw, I’ve got a metal plate in the side of my face, I’ve got a damaged hand, but I guess you can’t go swimming without getting wet,” Warrington said.
“It’ll probably be a minimum of six weeks before I’m back in the gym, which is absolutely killing me, I can’t even eat.
“I’m on a liquid diet. I was looking forward to eating cakes and cheeseburgers and I can’t have them. Everything goes through the blender.
“I’ve still got a six pack and I way weigh less than I did on Saturday morning. On Saturday morning, I was nine stone 10, nine stone 11. By the time I got to the ring, I was probably about 10 stone (140 pounds).
“Now, I got weighed yesterday, and I’m nine stone eight (134 pounds).
“I’ll be a super-flyweight by the end of the week!”
Warrington was told he had to be on a liquid diet for two weeks, but he has not been tempted to get too exotic with his meals.
“I’ve had a Mars bar put in the blender to have a milkshake,” he said. “That’s as luxurious as it’s got, a Mars bar!
“I’ve considered a kebab, I’ve considered fish and chips, I’ve considered a Big Mac, but it’s not the same is it?”
If Warrington has a dream fight now, it would be Leo Santa Cruz, the WBA “super champion” and he is hoping it can happen in the United States.
“I’ve been saying for a long time I want to go to the States,” Warrington said. “I’ve done everything I want to do over here. It’s just something that’s a personal goal to fight in America, to fight in someone’s backyard, so why not have a fight over there?
“I know Leigh Wood wants to fight me, but I was here first. I know he was world champion this time before I was, but I’ve been at this level before him. Back in 2018, he was just waiting for opportunities.
“I hope I can push in front of him and I promise him if I do the business against Santa Cruz, he will be my first defense.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 – covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.