Mauricio Lara shocks Josh Warrington: the professionals react to the result

SSE Arena, Wembley – The boxing world was shocked as he watched the unknown Mauricio Lara of 22 years (22-2, 15 KOs) pull a big turnaround when he defeated and knocked out undefeated former featherweight champion Josh Warrington (30- 1,7 KOs) in the ninth round.

Warrington had vacated the IBF title in the weeks leading up to this return, because the sanctioning body ordered him to rematch Kid Galahad.

Countless personalities from the boxing world reacted to the result on social media:

Carl Frampton – I don’t want to do Lara a disservice, obviously, with a heavy hand. But the only reason I see Warrington losing this is because of complacency. It should have been stopped on the 4th. Punishment like this is not good for anyone

Eddie Hearn – What a night of drama! Absolutely devastated by Josh, he will be back – congratulations to Lara, a young man who changed his life tonight. The greatest sport of all.

Shane McGuigan – Lara’s incredible sportiness. He clearly knew the punishment he was inflicting during the fight. My thoughts go to Warrington, I hope he is well.

Joe Gallagher – Absolutely destroyed by @J_Warrington and his team. Boxing in this confinement is dangerous – no crowd for the fighters who used to do this, they can’t hit the sparring, especially when fighting against Americans and Mexicans at different paces

Congratulations to Lara who fought 4 times last year in confinement and was a world sparring champion. He took the opportunity and probably felt bad about not flying home with the world title

Josh Taylor – I really hope Josh Warrington is fine after that, he’s a real top guy. In my opinion that fight should have been interrupted in that first knockdown, he took a lot of hard shots and looked injured for a long period of fighting. This is a great reminder to never underestimate your opponent.

Paul Smith – I just said on the air on @DAZNBoxing how Warrington fought after day 4 was so brave. But he had a concussion. On autopilot. He never recovered and was doing nothing but taking more damage! Crazy Boxing Night

Anyone else, anywhere else, in any other situation (except Josh Warrington just vacated the belt) that would have been stopped at the end of 4th. Much, much less at the beginning of the fifth, when it became clear that he had not recovered. I hope he’s all right

Tony Bellew – Boxing is so hard !! Never forget these people … The most brutal sport in the world ..

Jamel Herring – It was difficult for Warrington, but you never want to see any fighter come out like that. I just hope he can recover in the long run.

Kal Yafai – Concussion after the first knockdown. It should have been removed. I hope he’s all right.

Enzo Maccarinelli – Warrington is the only fighter who doesn’t have a crowd will affect more than most, but with no excuses in his performance Lara came to win showed power from the start and when you feel that power you box differently

Anthony Fowler – Sad to see that there, gutted by Warrington after giving up the belt he had a nightmare, I don’t know what went wrong but he didn’t seem right from the beginning, he needs that rematch with the crowd

Sunny Edwards – Honestly devastated by Josh there. Styles make fights, Lara looked seriously clumsy and how Josh recovered and won rounds after that room, you never know. British boxing’s biggest heart

Chris Billam-Smith – I’m sure I heard the song say “your eyes look glassy” right in front of Josh and he just sat there and said nothing. That was a few rounds before the end!

Richard Riakporhe – Warrington looked like a concussion from the start of the fight and should be checked carefully. I respect Lara for alerting the doctors to check on our man.