Whatever Josh Warrington has been watching on television this Christmas, he has not got round to watching his fight with Luis Alberto Lopez yet. It still remains a bit too raw.

It has been a few weeks since Warrington’s second reign as IBF featherweight champion ended with a majority decision loss to Lopez in Leeds. There have been plenty of emotions going through Warrington’s mind since that night but retirement is not an option for him right now.

“The feelings are frustration more than anything else,” Warrington said. “The first few days you are devastated. I've not watched it back, it is still too raw, I think I would have smashed the telly up.

“I have seen what Mr Lopez said. Reading people’s opinions, it was a close fight. Some people make out as if it was a whitewash and it was far from it.

“I finished the fight stronger, I just started slower than I normally would. Change that and I feel I won it quite comfortably. But there’s nothing I can do about it.”

It was a tough end to what had been a rollercoaster year for Warrington, who regained his world title from Kiko Martinez in March – having had a nightmare 2021 – but suffered a string of injuries in the fight, including a badly broken draw.

It meant hopes of a big summer fight never came off and he had to face Lopez, his mandatory, instead, when he returned to fitness. After such a tough year, he had promised himself a break from the gym but admits he might struggle to stay away from training.

“I said to my missus on December 10 that I would not go back to the gym until February and I will just get fat and let myself go because it has been a weird year,” he said.

“But as soon as the fight was done, I wanted to get straight back.”

Warrington is overwhelmingly disappointed that he allowed the early rounds to drift against Lopez and was playing catch-up thereafter.

“I was meant to counter a lot quicker than I did,” he said. “I was too anxious, don’t know if that was subconscious with the jaw. There were some rounds I didn’t throw my jab and we worked on that all camp. I didn’t start using it until the fifth round.

“Towards the later stages I could hear him wince when I hit him. I was hurting him every time I hit him to the body.”

One thing that has also hurt is accusations that he is a dirty fighter. Lopez was cut early on by a clash of heads and was also warned for a low punch, although Lopez was warned for constant holding.

The Mexican accused Warrington of being a dirty fighter after the fight and said he would not give him a rematch because of it, although if Warrington decided to go via the IBF eliminator route, he might have no choice.

“I still have a bump on my head from a clash from the head clash early on and when I hit him on the hip when he turned, he made a meal of it,” Warrington said.

“His trainer has came up after and said I am a dirty fighter. I made the point of him constantly holding. But all blame was attached to me. He was very wild with his movement.

“I go forward with my chin tucked down, it’s part of my defence, things like that happen with certain styles. I am fortunate in that I don’t get cut that much but I had a lump on my head. I saw Ricky Hatton used to be in clinches and get cut a lot.”

With twin five-year-old daughters, Warrington, 32, has plenty to keep his mind off boxing this Christmas, but has spoken with Eddie Hearn and Frank Smith at Matchroom about plans for next year and believes he will have a good 2023.

“It will be a big 2023,” he said. “There are plans I just have to keep my options open and stay in the gym

“It is as if people say I am finished. There was a lot more I could do in that fight. If I go down the IBF route again and get the mandatory position, Lopez will have to fight me again.

“Apart from that Leigh Wood (WBA champion) and (Mauricio) Lara are fighting and I could fight the winner of that. Either one would make a massive fight. Then Emanuel Navarette is supposed to be moving up, so there might be an opening there.

“People are always going to want to fight me because I have an established fan base.

“In a weird way I felt like I had a lot of pressure on me and I now feel free of that. For so long it has been a case of ‘last one before the big one, last one, last one’. Now, no one expects anything.”

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.