Josh Warrington bought his dream bike to get over the loss of Maurico Lara after finally getting his wife’s permission

JOSH WARRINGTON has overcome his car accident with Maurico Lara with a dream bike after his wife finally gave him the green light.

The 31-year-old Leeds hero suffered a grueling loss to the Mexican in February 2021, just weeks after giving up his IBF featherweight title to pursue other titles.

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The father-of-two hit rock bottom after the punishing KO, but wife Natasha helped snap him out of his funk with the nod for his two-wheeled dream machine.

Ahead of today’s shot at his old belt against Kiko Martinez at his local arena, Warrington revealed: “When I was world champion I went into a motorcycle shop and I came home with a brochure and the woman just burst into tears. She said ‘you can’t, you just became a father’.

“Then after the first Lara fight I was sulking and my dad had a midlife crisis and had just bought a scooter so I figured I’d get a bike.

“The woman gave me the blessing, so I went and got one. I think she did it because I was so damn miserable!

“She said you’ll eventually do it, so do it, but be careful.”

Warrington indulged in a 650cc Yamaha to ease the pain of that first career loss and exercised demons by facing Lara in September, which ended in a technical draw.

And now the only agony is listening to other bikers enjoying the blazing sunshine as he focuses on the must-win clash at the Leeds Arena with the 36-year-old, who he starred in in 2017.

He said: “When I’m on my bike I absolutely love it.

‘Whitby, Scarborough, that’s where I want to go. On Wednesday I was sitting in my back garden and where I live a lot of bikers go to a bike cafe near me and all day it was ‘vrooom!’

“And it was like someone on a diet walking past fast food joints and I was like, ‘Aaaaaargh!’ I can’t wait to get on my bike next week.

“I am aware of the dangers of a bicycle. I know if I hit a bar with my car I’m going to ruin my alloy. If I hit a bar with my bike I dismount, so I ride defensively.”

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Warrington – who is being led to the ring by Leeds United hero Luke Ayling – was left confused by Lara after missing an EGG-elletente pre-fight tradition.

The Elland Road regular has always personally delivered tickets to his longtime fans, with one devoted follower, Terry Poole, always thanking him with six eggs.

He explained: “Basically I’ve always been giving tickets to people who have been coming for a long time and the Poole family have been coming since I was town hall when I was fighting for the English title at Leeds Town Hall.

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“I’d say he’s probably given me half a dozen eggs in the last six years since I went over. It’s really a bit of a tradition.

“He swears I got hit by Lara for not getting the balls before that first fight.

“Now Terry gave me the eggs, now he’s at peace. Because I have the balls, he’s confident that I’ll be a two-time world champion.

“I couldn’t get her for the first Lara fight because it was in the bubble and no tickets were sold. I didn’t get them for the second fight either because I was so busy with everything else that my buddies had to drop off the tickets.

“I use it to make an omelette or scrambled eggs, something nice.”