March 28, 2024
Image: Action Images via Reuters

Josh Warrington 29 (6 KOs)-0-0 will defend his IBF Featherweight title against France’s Sofiane Takoucht 35 (13 KOs)-3 (0 KOs)-1 at the First Direct Arena in Leeds this Saturday broadcast on ESPN+ in the USA and BT Sport 1 in the UK.

I’ve been two weeks out from these articles but good news, I’ve got my first real 9-5 job, I am now officially an adult. so, I’m tired most of the time, I seem to be faced with challenges that I wasn’t prepared for, and I seem to be questioning constantly how I managed to get the job in the first place, so I’m basically feeling like Sofiane Takoucht will after a few rounds against Josh Warrington come Saturday…

First things first when I’m not familiar with a fighter I do what I always do, I go on Boxrec. So, I load up 126 and have a scroll through the ratings. I looked at page 1…nothing…page 2…nothing…page 3…”ahh there he is” at 128th in the world!

I mean I’m all for an underdog story, but I mean come on, Takoucht surely has got to feel like he’s walked into a head chef’s role because he owns a pair of nice oven gloves. At this exact point in the article I’ve gone and looked at the IBF ratings and somehow he’s in at number 4, so I guess I can’t exactly blame Warrington for taking the fight but it is a bit of a shame in having such an obviously easy fight in a pretty good division, especially domestically.

Before I write these I always have a look at at least a couple of fights of each fighter just to get to grips with the styles and everything else, I mean I want to at least appear professional. With Takoucht the only footage I could find was about three rounds against a guy in 2014 so I would have assumed he would’ve improved since then, but that is the only footage I could find, and so the only thing I can go off of.

Starting with the obvious he is a southpaw, and he seems to be comfortable moving back working predominantly off the jab and using the right hook leaning backwards, he does stand quite upright, and his inside work looked pretty ropey if I’m honest. If I were to compare him to a “well known” fighter I’d say he fights like an extremely poor mans Tony Bellew. Fairly upright, looks to box, counters from range. I’d note though that he really doesn’t turn over his left hand correctly, he looks like he slaps with it, contributing in using the front hand predominantly I would’ve thought. He’s not particularly rapid with his hands either, but to give him credit despite his balance appearing dodgy he doesn’t get caught clean too often, but against Warrington if it goes on the inside it’s not going to be pretty.

As for Warrington we already know what we’re going to get but if I were speaking to an American who didn’t know who Warrington was I’d say he fights like a featherweight Shawn Porter with much less physicality and punch power, but greater volume. He’s a fighter who struggles with the same things to Porter that being when a fighter can counter him coming in and physically maneuver him on the inside.

Do I think Takoucht is going to be the guy to do it? Nah, Warrington is beatable, but unless Takoucht has turned himself into a world beater, which his resume doesn’t really indicate, it’s going to be a rare TKO win for Warrington in the middle rounds, let’s say round 6. The fight won’t be close I think Warrington might take a couple of rounds to warm up a bit and Takoucht will have probably improved dramatically in the past 5 years, but that dramatic improvement is only going to get him to round 6 at the very best.

I’ve been gone for a couple weeks and now I’m back, I would say I’m back with a bang but with this fight I think I’ll just leave it as I’m back.