Ireland's world champion Anthony Cacace earns Wembley win over Josh Warrington

21 Sep 2024, 18:50 by Gavan Casey · The42

IRELAND’S SUPER-FEATHERWEIGHT WORLD champion Anthony Cacace has earned a unanimous-decision victory over England’s Josh Warrington at Wembley Stadium, retaining his IBF title.

An exhausting contest was awarded to Andersonstown’s ‘Anto’ on scores of 118-110 and 117-111 x2, all of which felt too wide even if there could be no qualms with the winner.

Cacace, 35, looked the more confident at the final bell that he had sealed victory, and the 33-year-old Warrington applauded when the Irishman’s name rang around the home of English football.

Cacace’s IBF world-title belt was not technically on the line in this contest as former two-time featherweight world champ Warrington was unranked up at super-feather by the IBF. The sanctioning body, however, gave permission for Cacace to take a lucrative bout with Warrington on the provision that he would vacate his title if he lost.

There were no such fears for Cacace, however, who heads back to Belfast with his reign intact.

His and Warrington’s bout on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s all-British meeting with Daniel Dubois was one in which most of the rounds, particularly in the second half, were both close and virtually indistinguishable from each other.

Moments of the boxing quality for which Cacace is renowned were rare, but Warrington’s speedy raids were equally nullified as the combatants cancelled each other out in the clinch and mostly pounded each other to the ribs, arms and shoulders.

It still made for an enthralling, brutal contest as was evidenced in both fighters’ faces when they were pulled apart for the final time.

Cacace (now 23-1, 8KOs), who dethroned Wales’ Joe Cordina to become Ireland’s first ever super-featherweight world champion on the undercard of Usyk-Fury earlier this year, ultimately had enough in the tank to see off the efforts of Leeds warrior Warrington (now 31-4, 8KOs) and have his tired arm raised at centre-ring.

A fun first round could have been decided by coin-flip. Cacace caught Warrington with a couple of eye-catching shots upstairs off either hand, but Warrington found significant success with buzzsaw-like attacks to the champion’s body.

Warrington doubled down on that approach and decidedly took the second, negating Cacace’s reach advantage and beating him to the ribs from the inside. He landed his own work to the head, too, as Cacace was forced backwards on several occasions.

The third was quieter, but Warrington’s hand-speed was causing Cacace pause for thought as he tried to navigate his way to the mid-range distance from which he’s most effective.

In the fourth, Cacace exploded back to life from that exact range, briefly wobbling Warrington with a sharp combo to the head.

Warrington recovered well and threw back in anger, but Cacace was buoyed by his success and followed it up with a thudding left uppercut through the guard. It was the clearest Cacace round to that point and the fighters came close to embracing at the end of it such was their mutual enjoyment of the dust-up to that point.

Cacace broadly controlled the fifth, either from range or by nullifying Warrington’s body work in the clinch. The Belfast native clipped the Yorkshireman with a left hook but Warrington was able to shuffle out of the danger zone before Cacace could truly capitalise.

It felt like a 3-2 fight either way heading into the sixth, which proved a scruffier round and was probably again shaded by the champion.

Cacace took a similar-looking seventh with a couple of quality right hands to Warrington’s head, albeit the naturally smaller Englishman stood up to them well.

The eighth was another toss-up, Cacace producing the cleaner work in the first half of it and Warrington responding well with a couple of right hands thrown from the corner. It was the Belfast man, though, who punctuated the round with a nice straight right of his own seconds before the bell.

With the bout seemingly up for grabs, Cacace punished Warrington with a rare body attack to start the ninth. It was a round in which the Irishman was the clear aggressor, while Warrington still dug in with his trademark grit and landed enough to make it close.

The challenger made the brighter start to the 10th before Cacace popped him with a right uppercut from the clinch. It felt like more of a Warrington round overall due to his sheer activity, but the rounds were becoming increasingly difficult to call as the fighters tired, wrestled, and fired blindly in each other’s direction.

With six minutes remaining, it felt impossible to make a definitive call on the contest. And that stayed the case heading into the final round, the 11th being a similar mess.

Cacace landed an eye-catching left cross out of the southpaw stance in the first half of the 12th and followed it up with a right. Warrington responded from the clinch, as always, but Cacace produced the cleaner work in a shift which struck as being potentially decisive.