Its been announced that terms have been agreed for Warrington to face Xu Can next in what will be an IBF and WBA featherweight unification. Can is currently the regular champion but with Santa Cruz moving up he will be elevated to be the main world champion at featherweight. The WBA like usual have screwed around and so its hard to know whos the actual world champion and who has what is in effect an interim title.
I’m happy that Xu Can is going to become full champion as he has actually been fighting good competition and won the belt in an upset so you can’t say he doesn’t deserve to be a world champion. I also like this fight stylistically as both throw massive amounts of punches and it could be an all out war. I have high expectations for this fight and hopefully it delivers as in my opinion its one of the most fan friendly match ups in the featherweight division.
Warrington went back and forth with Shakur Stevenson (current WBO champion) but it doesn’t appear the bout will happen due to the sides not reaching an agreement. Stevenson when he heard about the news said that he’d be going up to 130 now that Warrington had “decided to fight an interim champ with two losses”. I don’t know the particulars of why this fight wasn’t made but it seems it came down to money and Stevenson wanting more to fight in the UK. A lot of people have said Warrington is ducking Stevenson but I don’t think this makes sense as its only Warringtons side that have made offers. Why has Top Rank not made an offer for Warrington to fight Stevenson in the USA?. I personally don’t think either fighter is ducking each other and in general I think very few fighters are actually scared to fight someone. The reason i’m defending Warrington is because he gets a lot of abuse online for someone that has his resume.
I’m excited for this fight and when tickets get announced I may end up going as long as the under card is decent as well. Whoever wins this fight will be the number one in the division as both Stevenson and Russell Jr are moving up. The winner will also likely have to face IBF mando Kid Galahad which could lead to a dreadful fight as Galahad’s style is awful. if Warrington beats Xu Can, Galahad again and then unifies once more then I think he breaks the p4p top 10 and his resume at featherweight becomes unquestionable.
