It was a case of repeat rather than revenge as Leigh Wood romped to a routine win over Josh Warrington in Saturday’s rematch atop a Matchroom on DAZN card held at the Nottingham Arena in England.
The British boxing rivals met for the first time in 2023 with Wood winning by seventh-round knockout, and though both fighters have endured inconsistent form of late, there remained high interest in a do-over — but, on Feb. 21, Wood hushed any notion of a trilogy by taking the rivalry to 2-0 (1 KOs).
He couldn’t have gotten off to a more dominant start as, though Warrington clipped him with solid enough shots, Wood cruised to a commanding lead through sheer activity.
Wood use a southpaw stance, and a bouncing movement around the ring’s periphery, to try and blunt Warrington’s focus on singular shots that, when landed, caused enough issues for the home fighter to take backward steps.
Wood boxed with his gloves by his hips and fired shots from lower angles, cracking Warrington with a solid uppercut but yet got clattered by a counter hook as he failed to veer away from the pocket in time to leave his opponent hanging.
Midway through the fight, Wood kept putting his punches in bunches and used his movement to frustrate Warrington, who kept his gloves far higher, to protect his face, than Wood, who tried to hook his way around his rival’s defense.
With Wood seemingly up by a near-shutout deep into the fight, Warrington’s downfall was failing to adjust to Wood’s superior distance management within the fight.
Warrington’s best moments were when he shut the ring off and threw singular shots from close range to check Wood’s chin. However, those moments were few and far between as Leigh boxed with his feet underneath him, using movement in between.
Considering a narrative heading into tonight’s fight was that it was effectively a win or retire bout, the stakes were high for Warrington, who needed a knockdown, as well as a late rally, as the bout approached the final quarter.
Wood fenced with his southpaw jab, stayed on the move but kept away from the ropes, and planted his feet to stick his lead glove face-level before throwing a crisp uppercut. It was a well-disciplined drill that tallied the points in his favor from beginning to end.
That rally never came, let alone the knockdown, as Wood boxed with maturity, rhythm, and to a game-plan that allowed him to pick up a majority, if not all of the rounds.
And in the end, the judging mostly reflected the action, with two of the three judges scoring the fight a near spotless 119-109 for Wood, with one judge awarding Warrington three rounds with 117-111.
After the official announcement of the result, Wood said: “It was very sweet. We worked hard, sacrificed a lot. What a night! I physically felt good.”
“What a fight to finish on, if it was the last one.”
“He’s a tough guy, Josh. We’ll have a talk, after, and have a drink, for sure,” Wood finished.
“I tried my best,” Warrington said. “And I wanted it bad. I couldn’t do any more.”
Earlier on the card, Bilal Fawaz defended his British and Commonwealth super welterweight titles with a majority decision win over Ishmael Davis.
Earlier on the card, Bilal Fawaz defended his British and Commonwealth super welterweight titles with a majority decision win over Ishmael Davis, Sandy Ryan narrowly outpointed Karla Ramos Zamora, and David Allen scored a first-round finish over Karim Berredjem, having knocked him down twice en route to his opponent’s corner throwing in the towel to stop the heavyweight bout.
