Boxing: Coldwell left confident McDonnell will be king

Three-time US Olympian Warren outpointed Juan Carlos Payano to win the WBA’s ‘Super’ title and line up a potential clash with WBA ‘regular’ champion McDonnell.

Hatfield fighter McDonnell had been mandated by the WBA to face former champion Payano in order to unify the organisation’s two world titles at bantamweight.

With the WBA keen to reduce the bloated number of world champions within their organisation, they are likely to remain keen on a unification bout later this summer.

Coldwell – who began training McDonnell a year ago – went on a scouting mission to Chicago to watch the clash between Warren and Payano and left confident the 30-year-old will become the WBA’s undisputed king if given the opportunity.

“It was a solid win for Warren but one that doesn’t really worry myself or Jamie,” he said.

“He made a good start and built himself a good lead and it was obvious he learnt the lessons from the first fight between the two, which shows he can adapt.

“Payano is someone we’ve looked at for Jamie before and is a good fighter but I still think that Jamie is the man in the division and that his size and fitness plus his underrated boxing ability which is getting better and better would be enough against Warren.

“People forget that I’ve only been with Jamie for five minutes and he’s still learning stuff every single training session with me.

“We’re already at the top end of the division and he’s only going to get better.

“He’s earned his spot near the top of this division and he wants to maintain it by beating the biggest and best names around because he’s someone who performs better when the challenge is bigger.”