Warrington will seemingly be forced to defend against mandatory challenger Kid Galahad at the start of 2019.

The Sheffield man won a final eliminator for the title by outpointing Toka Kahn Clary on October 20 and has since repeatedly stated that he’s been told his shot would come next.

It was originally thought that Warrington could sidestep this mandatory by agreeing a unification bout with one of the other featherweight champions and gaining an exception from the IBF.

However, the governing body have now exclusively stated to talkSPORT.com that this will not be the case.