Saturday’s super-featherweight fight between Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington was as much about what was said after the fight as what happened during the fight itself. In fact, given where both men are in their respective careers, it could even be argued that what was said after the fight was somehow more important than what happened during the fight.
Both, after all, understand how this works. They know that having entered the back-half of their thirties they are, as super featherweights, now in the process of slowing down, deteriorating, and counting the days. Of this they have seen evidence in recent performances. Even on Saturday, before their rematch, it would not have hurt either of them to have it pointed out that they were being matched because they stand at similarly perilous junctures in their careers.
Warrington, the younger man at 35, had won only two of his past seven fights going into Saturday’s clash with Wood, while Wood, 37, was last seen getting stopped in nine rounds by Anthony Cacace in May. Both men have spoken of retirement, with Warrington even dumping his gloves and announcing his retirement in the ring following his loss to Cacace in September 2024. In the end, Warrington would go back on that retirement pledge, but it is often said that if a fighter so much as considers retirement they are not only halfway out the door but unable to then return the one foot that is already out and in slippers.
As for Wood, he too has spoken of retirement, albeit in more ambiguous terms. Ahead of Saturday’s fight, for example, he said he was open to the possibility of it being his last, regardless of both the result and how he performed. That is perhaps most telling in all this: Wood’s awareness of time and how much of it he has left. It is also why Wood-Warrington II was less about who won and more about how both felt and what they both said immediately afterwards.
“My body felt good,” said Wood, speaking in the ring after 12 rounds in the company of Warrington. “Mentally I felt good; physically I felt good. I was a little bit more nervous going in because I’ve had a long time out of the ring.
“But I know what you want to hear tonight. I’m not too sure yet. I’m not going to make a decision on the spot. But what a fight to finish on if it was the last one.”
That was the winner of the fight, by the way. He was a clear winner at that, with the judges at ringside delivering scores of 119-109, 119-110, and 117-111, all in Wood’s favour, at the bout’s conclusion. Yet, despite him winning, and despite the one-sided nature of victory, still Wood, now 29-4 (17 KOs), couldn’t be sure whether he would set foot inside a ring again.
Warrington, the one on the receiving end, was no more decisive. He, you would think, had stronger evidence to support the theory that his best days are now behind him, but even he was reluctant to be drawn on the issue of retirement at the end of Saturday’s fight. He too wanted to take some time to think about it and avoid having his decision be one led by either post-fight emotion or the hunger for a headline. Warrington, after all, had been there before.
“There was just something off tonight,” said the Leeds man. “I came in here even stronger, even fitter, and sparring had been unbelievable. I could see what Leigh was doing, but I just couldn’t capitalise on it. Compared to a couple of years ago, my reactions were a lot better tonight, but I was just off the pace.”
Asked what was next, Warrington, 32-5-1 (8 KOs), chuckled to himself before saluting all the Leeds fans inside the Nottingham Arena. He then said: “I’m not going to make a decision. I miss my kids immensely. I’m going to go home and see my little boy and my twin daughters. I won’t make any rash decisions. But, with that being said, I can’t keep coming out here, when people are spending their hard-earned money, and not giving everything. I try my best, and I wanted it so f****** bad – I’ve been obsessed with Leigh for the last 14 weeks – but tonight I was thinking about it a little too much. In a sport like boxing, you can’t be doing that against people like Leigh Wood.”
Going into the fight Warrington would have believed he knew his next opponent inside and out. If it wasn’t enough to have spent almost seven rounds in his company in 2023 (a fight Wood won by seventh-round TKO), the 14 weeks he then spent studying the Nottingham fighter will have seen to any remaining blind spots.
However, for all his preparation, Warrington may have underestimated the lengths to which Wood was prepared to go in order to not just win their fight but ensure there would be other fights down the road. Which is to say, if Warrington thought he would be getting the same Leigh Wood he experienced two years ago in Sheffield, or even the same Leigh Wood he has seen in other fights, he was wrong.
Instead, this Leigh Wood was a man less gung-ho than before and more conscious of protecting himself. He knew now what was at stake and knew, historically, that the only way for a boxer to still flourish in their late thirties is to go through a process of reinvention. It didn’t have to be a major overhaul – it is, of course, too late for that – but for a fighter like Wood, who has been to the well so many times, it is surely essential to now get a little selfish and start winning fights on his terms.
If that means the action suffers, and the entertainment value drops, so be it. If that means we see an end to the famous Leigh Wood come-from-behind rally, so be it. At this stage the former champion must be in it for himself if he is to be in it at all.
He will never be a dull fighter to watch – that’s not in his DNA – but there were certainly signs of a pared-back Wood against Warrington on Saturday night. It started early, in fact, when he came out as a southpaw, despite having boxed Warrington previously, and indeed most of his fights, from the orthodox stance. It was a strategic move, clearly, one inspired by something the Wood team had seen in Warrington during camp, but it also suggested that Wood was capable of changing. He could change stance and he could change his approach. He could perhaps even change his fortunes.
In the first four rounds, he seemed on the way to doing just that. With his hands down, Wood was comfortable shifting in and out of range and would often sting a frustrated Warrington with either a straight left cross or snappy right hook whenever he encroached. He did some nice work to the body, too, particularly with that southpaw left cross, and there was a sense even early on that Warrington was beginning to fall behind and panic.
In round five, Warrington fared a little better when employing his jab and then bullying Wood up close, but he was still without any sort of breakthrough moment. He huffed and he puffed, as he always does, only he struggled to sustain his attacks, as well as inject them with the kind of tenacity with which he was synonymous during his reign as IBF featherweight champion. His last hurrah, if one can call it that, came in round seven, when he landed a solid right hook followed later by a left hook, though Wood had no problem coping with the impact of both.
After that, it was all Wood, with each round becoming slower and less interesting than the last. Still in the southpaw stance, Wood impressively controlled the range and tempo of the fight and was now able to read the remaining few moves Warrington had left in his body and brain. Whenever he saw his feet go a certain way, or his shoulders jerk, he knew how and when to react. Whenever he saw Warrington load up, he either pulled back, or rolled under.
However he got away, Wood found it easier and easier to do so as the fight progressed. The same goes for landing shots, with Wood’s left uppercut becoming more of a feature as Warrington started to get reckless and stumble forward while leaving himself open. Crucially, though, Wood never once got greedy. Nor did he try to better the result in 2023 by forcing the issue and in turn putting himself at risk. He didn’t even think of cranking up the volume of his attacks for the benefit of his home fans or staging some sort of grandstand finish.
Instead, confident he was in credit (both with the fans and the judges), Wood at last won a fight on his terms. Unlike his previous fights, the longer this one went on the more predictable and boring it became, yet that, considering the circumstances, was no bad thing. In fact, it could even be said that for Wood to continue his career at 37 he could do with more of these kinds of performances – dominant, slightly dull – and fewer of the performances on which he has built both his name and reputation. We know he can fight hard and dig deep when it’s required. But we also know he can now think his way through a fight and perform with self-preservation as the goal. On Saturday he was not a man simply living in the moment and acting on instinct. He was a man with tomorrow on his mind. Perhaps you get that way when your tomorrows are no longer promised.
