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Mauricio “Bronco” Lara feels that his rivalry with Josh Warrington is a personal thing, and still wants to fight him despite the fact that Warrington recently lost his world title against Luis Alberto “Venado” Lopez. But Lara also warns Lopez that the belt belongs to him.
“With Warrington it is a personal thing”, Lara said to Izquierdazo. “I will fight him; he is not a champion anymore and he will not have an advantage. I will fight him anywhere, but not in his home. He is not an A side anymore in a fight against me; he is a B side or even a C side, because I’m in a higher position than him. Warrington has to fight me, no matter what. It’s a personal thing what I have with him. I wanted to fight him even more, because he had the world title that I wanted. That title belongs to me since 2021, to tell you the truth”.
Lara knocked out Warrington out in nine rounds in 2021. A rematch, which also took place last year, saw the bout end in a two-round technical decision after Lara suffered a serious cut due to a clash of heads.
Lara greeted his fellow Mexican, “Venado” Lopez, who won a majority decision against Warrington to capture the IBF featherweight world title.
“Congratulations to (Lopez). He accomplished a big merit for his career. That title has belonged to me since 2021,” Lara said. “Now that (Lopez) is a champion, he has the title that I want. We can make that fight. It doesn’t matter, I want to fight with anyone, with any champion that gives me an opportunity.
“I don’t watch boxing [so I didn’t watch Lopez-Warrington], I don’t have the passion to watch other fights. I have passion to do and feel boxing, but believe it or not, I’m not very fond of watching it. But what (my team) told me, there were things that occurred that also happened in my fight. We now know nothing was not accidental. We noticed that everything is on purpose with a dirty fighter like him (Warrington)”.
But the IBF featherweight belt is not the only title that Lara has in his sights. Leo Santa Cruz recently relinquished his WBA title, and that left Leigh Wood as the only WBA champion in the weight class.
“We know that this English fighter (Wood) is considered a chicken”, Lara pointed out. “He was supposed to fight me to leave that image behind. He has to make the effort to win against me, because we know that I am at my best moment to become a world champion.
“England is like a second home to me. We know that English fighters run away from Mexicans. But now, with the upset that Venado accomplished there, every Mexican fighting there (in the UK) will feel at home.”