Former world champions Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington on Thursday shared a live face-off to promote their rematch on February 21.
Wood stopped Warrington in Sheffield in October 2023 and Warrington claimed he would have continued in a fight he felt he was winning. Wood believes the fight was rightly stopped, and the fighters have disputed the ending since.
Bad blood has manifested in the two years since because they were initially unable to agree a deal to fight one another again. But cooler heads have since prevailed, and they will box their return at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hate him, but I don’t like him now,” said Warrington. “Since the first fight, he’s never shown any respect, even though all I ever did was answer questions of what went wrong and why what happened happened in the fight.
“I thought the fight was going as I expected it until that round seven. I’ve got to make sure that same mistake doesn’t happen again, but up until that moment I was having an easy night.”
Warrington is 35 years old and Wood is two years older. Both have significant fanbases, with Warrington likely to bring thousands of fans from Leeds to Wood’s hometown.
Wood is 28-4 (17 KOs), and they bickered over the stoppage again on Thursday.
Warrington, 32-4-1 (8 KOs), maintains he was okay to continue having been dropped heavily in round seven when the stoppage came.
“It’s like someone running the 200m and saying I was winning, and they lost,” said Wood. “You were winning, but at what cost?”
Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn said that the fight should have happened a year ago.
“If I lose this fight, it takes away the credibility of the first fight, so I need to do a better job this time,” said Wood. “I don’t know if I’m even going to fight again after this fight. I haven’t even thought about it. But, for me, I need to win this fight. Everything comes down to winning this fight to me.”
Wood predicted he would win by stoppage, and said he was preparing for the best Warrington. He also said that making the weight hurt him last time.
Warrington, for his part, insisted that he had hoped to outbox Wood in every round but had made a mistake and paid the price.
“That’s the truth,” he said. “I just don’t believe that you should have been able to win a round against me. So, that’s just it. When I beat him in his own backyard, if there’s a third there, I’d happily go to Leeds and have another one there. He’s wanted a stadium fight for some time. If he wants a stadium fight, we could go to Elland Road [home of Leeds United].”
