There comes a point for a fighter when too much emotional investment in a grudge is detrimental.
The thought of a fight alone is all-consuming, but getting one up on your rival – or losing to him or her – nags with every heartbeat and each train of thought.
With that in mind, Leigh Wood has switched off the noise and disengaged.
Sure, he fights Josh Warrington this weekend in Nottingham, in front of Wood’s hometown fans, and he will likely feel the raucous atmosphere from the 8,000 sold-out crowd, but in terms of renewing hostilities before the bell, Wood has no interest.
“I’ll take it as it comes, me,” Wood told BoxingScene. “I’m at peace with the camp that I’ve had, the sparring that I’ve done, the things I’ve done.”
Since their previous fight, in late 2023, Wood and Warrington have consistently exchanged barbs on social media and there is no love lost after the controversial ending to their bout which Wood won with a seventh-round stoppage in Sheffield.
Warrington has always maintained he could have fought on and, as the winner, Wood has happily goaded him.
Does the Nottingham veteran think he’s firmly under the Leeds’ star’s skin?
“I don’t really know,” the 37-year-old replied.
“I don’t really care. Honestly, I’m so laidback this week because I know I’ve done everything I need to do. So there’s nothing that’s going to f*** with me, to be honest. How he approaches it is how he approaches it. And then I’ll adapt to suit. Even like the press [conference] and that, I’m not going to sit there and argue with him because what’s there to argue about? I boxed him the first time, I knocked him out and we’ll box again on Saturday and I’m going to do the same again.”
You can hear the detachment in Wood’s voice, but it will be another thing staying cool if Warrington starts to rile him. Wood believes he will remain stoic.
“That [getting too involved] doesn’t change anything, does it? I mean, it’s probably good for the promoters, but that’s their job, to promote, not our job.”
Wood, of course, has had a long-running feud with Michael Conlan since he shattered the Irishman’s dreams in the dying moments of their 2022 thriller in Nottingham.
What is it about the 28-4 (17 KOs) Wood that rubs his opponents up the wrong way?
“They started with me,” he protested. “They started. With Conlan, he wanted to get under my skin to try and get an advantage in the fight, I think. He wanted to disrupt me, he wanted to disrupt my camp. He tried to create a rift between me and my trainer and it backfired for him, didn’t it? And it made him look more of an idiot because he got knocked out. Same with Warrington. He was under control before the fight because he thought he was going to win. And then, when he didn’t win, he started posting stuff and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve actually been really respectful, and I went over to you after because I thought that would have been a tough one to take.’ So I thought, ‘I’ll try to make you feel a bit better and say, you know, you caught me some good shots, you was a hard fighter.’ Then he started posting stuff and I thought, ‘I don’t know if he was doing it to get a rematch or whatever.’
“So then I started posting things thinking, ‘Well, I don’t know how you have the audacity after losing to post stuff, but I’m going to post stuff.’ “And then, tit for tat, things escalate, don’t they?”
In the marketing of the fight, DAZN and Matchroom have played up to the feud. The fighters ticked off the Face Off box and then – separately – filmed a trailer of them in make-up as old men discussing their rivalry and the controversy decades from now.
Wood didn’t enjoy the head-to-head. He doesn’t feel he’s had the respect he’s been due from the first fight and Warrington’s claims of a lucky shot and the referee stopping the fight too early have only served to further infuriate Wood.
“There’s no lucky shots in boxing, especially at that level,” Wood contended.
“We’re both two-time world champions, so there’s no lucky shots. But we had to have a face-to-face on the stage and then we had to sit down after that.
“And I said, ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think potentially we could end up fighting, we’ve just been separated on stage and now we’re going to sit down and ask each other questions.’ I didn’t want to be there. I’d already reached my max capacity of time I could have spent with him. I just didn’t want to be there. But I sat and did it and it was painful.”
It is not just Warrington who has strong opinions about that first fight, but his father and trainer Sean O’Hagan.
O’Hagan told BoxingScene recently he felt Wood was on the verge of being stopped in the first fight, something which the Nottingham man finds humorous.
“Conlan thought the same,” countered Wood. “Twelve rounds later, I knocked him out the ring. I don’t know. He [Warrington]’d have to knock me out. He caught me multiple times that fight and I was still in front of him. He’d have to knock me out and I don’t think he’s capable of knocking me out. That’s the only way. I don’t think he’s capable. He hit me with everything. He hit me with his best shots multiple times to the head and to the body. He didn’t budge me – and that’s the difference. I’m tough but I can crack. And this time he’s not going to get the opportunity to do that because I’m going to be in complete control.”
Another assertion from O’Hagan was that Warrington was ahead on the scorecards at the end, until Wood produced the finish. But, having gone back, Wood isn’t so sure that Warrington was actually leading.
The three scorecards favored Warrington, but Wood is not convinced they told the story of the fight.
“Let’s be real, I won the second round on all the cards,” he explained.
“I actually won the first round on one card. But, even in the worst-case scenario, I think I won the first and the second round.
“Then he got a point took off for [for rabbit punches] and then I got a 10-8 round. So let’s look at that. I won four rounds out of seven but, give me the first, I’ve won five rounds out of seven. So in what world was he winning the fight on points? I’d love to know.”
Wood also said he’s seen an alternate angle of the stoppage that has not been widely-viewed and reckoned it shows the final decision, made by referee Mark Alexander on the bell to end the round, was the right one.
“His corner was screaming at him to turn around,” said Wood. “He didn’t know where he was. I’ve got a clip on my phone, so when the ref stops the fight, he waves it off. Then the camera’s still rolling and then he [Warrington] walks over to the ropes. He stumbles, the ropes keep him up and then he fell over. Not many people have seen that. They see where he’s missed the nine count, he’s turned around or whatever, he’s supposed to show the ref that he’s all right and he hasn’t. So he’s turned around late, regardless of his corner all jumping up and screaming at him to turn around. [People] totally missed them saying that, so he wasn’t quite with it. And then after the ref stopped it, he stumbles over towards the ropes, trips up a little bit, ropes keep him up, his friend from his corner ran over, lifts him up slightly, walks back to his corner and sits down. That bit no one’s seen. So as a fighter, he’s going to say, ‘I was all right to go on.’
“I would say that. I’ve said that after the [Mauricio] Lara one, when I got dropped heavy, probably the right decision by [trainer] Ben [Davison, to pull him out]. I won the rematch. That fight with Warrington was a very similar situation. He was really hurt. I teed off him with five big shots, teed off on him. He wasn’t all right. Yeah, he did have the minute, but I don’t know if it would have been enough.”
Even if Wood was behind, he’s no stranger to reducing a deficit and winning a fight, one way or another. He has become one of Britain’s most-popular fighters by being able to dig so deep. Even if he was to agree with Warrington’s team, that they were ahead at the time of the stoppage, that statistic was made redundant in the end.
“It doesn’t matter [who was winning] to a certain extent, but if you start fast, too fast, like I said about the marathon and the sprint, you can win the first 100 metres of a 1500 metre race, but then on the second lap or halfway through the first lap, things are going to start changing and you can’t go, ‘Oh yeah, well, you know what? I think he can win next time because I won the first 100 metres in a 1500 metre race.’ What difference does it make? That’s basically what he’s saying. He started really fast. He did win a few rounds, but at what cost? What did it cost him? It cost him the fight.”
There is a real cost to the loser of Saturday’s fight. Promoter Eddie Hearn has said the loser will potentially face a long road back to boxing’s top table and possibly even retirement. And while Wood still has his own ambitions in the sport, there is no future beyond Saturday.
“No, I’m not thinking about that,” Wood said. “I’m just thinking win this fight because there’s a lot on the line. It’s not so much belts or money or what’s next. It’s more pride and it’s more bragging rights. I don’t even know if I’m going to fight again. This could be my last fight and I want to finish on a high. So that’s probably my biggest motivation: to do a better job than last time. Well, I’m not saying better job, but a quicker job than last time. And then it’s up to me if I want to fight again. I’ve got the choice, but I’m not sure if I’m going to. I don’t know. I wanted to finish on a high and this is a good high to finish on.”
But, in order to get that dream finish, Wood knows there can be no more controversy.
“Clean,” he said. “It's got to be clean. And it will be clean. It will be very clean.”
