Josh Warrington knows there are far easier to ways to make a bob or two than getting punched in the head.
Reality TV is one option that is very much open to him and producers at the BBC ’s much-loved Strictly Come Dancing are among those who would leap at the chance to have him on their show.
But there are two very good reasons for the 32-year-old’s reluctance to accept the Beeb buck just yet. Firstly, because he loves boxing far too much to walk way while he still has so much to offer the sport.
And, secondly, because his wife, Tash, has put her foot down on Strictly over the so-called ‘curse’ which has hit so many marriages of contestants who have been on.
Warrington said: “There are easier ways to make money but I seriously love this sport of boxing and it scares me the day when I’m going to hang up the gloves. I look around my office and see fight posters, I’ve got a ‘Fight of the Year’ one against Carl Frampton and Lee Selby, I’m a boxing fan.
"I read all about boxing, I’ve read Boxing News since I was 10 years old, I watch fights and I get excited as well. I love the sport and I’m part of it.
“It’s like a young lad being able to progress through his football career and being able to play in the Premier League and the Champions League. Where I am in my sport, I’m at the top of the game. So, yeah, there are easier ways to make a living and Mrs Warrington, in the last two fights, she has been, like, ‘The last two fights, Josh, you’ve been in hospital, how long are you going to keep on going?’ I keep saying, ‘Just one more, Tash, one more’.
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“I love it, I’ve shaped my whole life around boxing and it will be difficult to give up. I would probably do reality TV, though, when I’m finished. I’ve been offered Dancing On Ice , but obviously I can’t do it because if I injure myself then it’s game over. I got offered Strictly but Mrs Warrington wasn’t happy because it’s renowned for the curse. I’m too stiff as well.”
Warrington is back in the ring next Saturday when he defends his IBF world featherweight title against Mexico’s Luis Alberto Lopez in Leeds. And the football-mad fighter is hoping he’ll be part of an exciting double-header of sport given England will play their World Cup quarter-final on the same day if they can overcome Senegal on Sunday.
Warrington added: “It’s always nice to have a big sporting occasion on as well — when I won the world title against Lee Selby it was FA Cup final day.
“It’s good because those who go to the boxing might go to a bar to watch the football to get themselves warmed up and then come down to watch myself. So it becomes an occasion, it’s a full-on day that people plan weeks and weeks in advance. It would be fantastic with us in the quarter-finals and hopefully we can push and get into the semis and the final.”
Warrington’s twin girls are four — “four going on 20”, he joked — and are making sure he’s in the best shape possible to face Lopez. He said: “The other day we were in the street and a group of kids said, ‘Oh, bloody hell, it’s Josh Warrington’. I stopped and had pictures, and my girls were asking, ‘Why do they want pictures with you, Daddy? Is it because you’re on the telly?’ So they’re getting an idea of what I do.
“Tash must have got in the ears as well because they come up to me when I’m in bed and say, ‘Daddy, you need to get out of bed because the Mexican man is trying to take your belt’.”
