A YEAR TO REMEMBER

Josh Warrington certainly doesn’t do things by halves. Not long after cutting the ribbon to launch the build-up to his challenge for the IBF world featherweight title held by Lee Selby at Elland Road on May 19, came another major landmark in his life – the birth of his twin daughters. The year of 2018 won’t be one he forgets in a hurry as Josh explains in his latest Fighter Diary…

FIGHTER DIARY BY JOSH WARRINGTON

NOT SO LONG after the lively press conference to officially announce that I would be fighting for the world title at Elland Road against Lee Selby there was another major event in my life.

My two baby girls are 12 weeks old now and are doing absolutely fantastically.

It has certainly changed my outlook on life, the way you think about what really matters and it is another chapter for me.

What a year for them to come onboard!

Of course, I am now hoping for another life-changing experience on May 19 and I probably didn’t anticipate two such significant occasions to come so close together, but that is life and it doesn’t stop for no man.

Ideally I would have liked to have started a family when I retired, but what a year this has turned out to be and it will be quite something when I am able to look back and reflect on it – winning the world title and my two beautiful daughters being born.

If I ever was to need any additional focus going into my fight next week I would only have to look down at our new babies and think this is about their future. I actually try not to use them as motivation but you can’t help it because, at the end of the day, you want to secure the best future you can for them.

All of a sudden, you don’t think about yourself or about material possessions, you just think about their future and wanting the best for them, being able to provide what they want and need in life.

This is for them more than me now.

I haven’t been and won’t be distracted from my preparations for Elland Road although, don’t get me wrong, I do what I can because they are changing every single day and there are times you don’t want to miss.

This is the biggest fight of my life and I have worked for a long time to get to the position where I am at – and the missus understands this.

I get excused from some of the night feeds because I need my sleep and this fight is the perfect reason to get me out of getting up at daft o’clock in the morning!

Looking back to my encounter with Selby at the press conference I get asked what I took from the exchanges.

I learned a few things and one of them is to probably not get too carried away in the exchange of words. I had control over myself and what I was saying but, in truth, I just ended up saying whatever came into my head.

I could have been more composed because there was a lot I wanted to say beforehand and I think it all just came out at once!

It was a lot to take in and I think I did about five hours worth of media activity and about twice as many interviews as he did. I was a bit tired after it all and probably said the same things about a thousand times, but it is done and dusted now.

It is now about just getting in there with the talking all done and doing the business with our fists.

I do suspect Selby was a bit rattled by it all on the day, although some people might say otherwise and say he was the cooler out of the two of us. At the end of the day, it was me who got to stare into his eyes and see what I saw.

Listen, I like to think that I am a good judge of character. I don’t know him personally but, from looking in, I felt he was rattled. He’ll argue until he’s blue in the face that he wasn’t and only he knows the truth.