Josh Warrington vs. Joel Brunker
5th September – First Direct Arena
Josh Warrington, a local Leeds lad, defends his WBC International and Commonwealth featherweight titles against the Australian Joel Brunker this weekend in a fight that promises to be a huge event at the First Direct Arena. With approximately 10,000 wild fans in attendance, the atmosphere promises to be intense ahead of Warrington’s toughest test.
The Leeds Warrior makes his third defence of the Commonwealth title and will be looking to add Joel Brunker to an impressive list of wins, that includes Rendall Munroe, David Dieli and Martain Lindsay.
But who is Joel Brunker? The Aussie fighter has won 28 fights and lost only one, against Britain’s Lee Selby. Many believe he can cause Josh Warrington some problems in their fight and maybe even shock the hometown favourite. We spoke to him via Twitter and he simply told us that he was “looking forward to coming to fight over there (at the First Direct Arena)”.
When we spoke to Josh Warrington last month, he was fully aware that Joel Brunker was his hardest test so far as he told us, ““It’s giving me that fear factor back in training, I’m training harder than ever and trying to get everything perfect. I’m just trying to get through the fight with a win, a good performance would be a bonus though.” Warrington then added, with a smile, “what I do know though is that it’s not nice to be walking out to a lot of people booing you and cheering for the other guy every time you get punched!”
The Warrington-Brunker fight is the main event, with Merseyside boxers Martin Murray and Tony Bellew appearing on the undercard.
You can still buy tickets for the boxing here, or you can watch it live on Sky Sports.
Best of luck, Josh.
