BN Preview: Featherweights Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington appear made for each other in every possible way

BOTH recognized for their involvement in unpredictable fights and upsets, maybe in the tip the one predictable factor about featherweights Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington is that they’d sooner or later cross paths and meet in the ring, which is exactly what they’ll do that Saturday (October 7) in Sheffield.

For no matter purpose there may be and all the time has been a sense that they belong collectively, these two. Whether that’s as a consequence of their kinds, which can certainly mix nicely, or their personalities, that are each no-nonsense and direct, you simply perpetually had a way that their paths, no matter whoever else emerged alongside them, would in the end lead right here. It is slightly refreshing, too, that each are intent on preventing each other, if solely as a result of in the previous we’ve got usually seen high-achieving British boxers inhabit the identical weight class but do all they will to keep away from each other, seemingly of the view that it’s preferable to leap a degree and possibly lose there than it’s to lose in opposition to a home rival.

Wood and Warrington buck the pattern in that sense. Then once more, it may be argued that had been it not for Warrington’s latest loss, which he suffered in opposition to Luis Alberto Lopez in December, these two wouldn’t be preventing in any respect; that’s, there could be fewer causes for it to occur now and extra causes to delay it till it turns into greater and greater (and then in fact implodes when one loses). That tends to be the way issues go in boxing, we all know that by now, however one would nonetheless wish to assume these two, given they compete in the identical division and appear to be minimize from the identical preventing fabric, would have at some stage discovered each other on the proper time.

As it’s, that Warrington defeat has definitely moved issues alongside, of that there will be little question. Before that, in any case, he was being constructed as a star in Leeds – certainly, he is without doubt one of the few pure ticket-sellers we’ve got left in the UK – and was being constructed as a possible drive on the world stage, this regardless of already being stopped in 9 rounds by Mauricio Lara in 2021. Likely, his backers knew of his limitations, in fact they did, however with the ability of his Leeds assist and the very fact he was capable of pack out both the First Direct Arena or Headingley Rugby Stadium, and even Elland Road, made him fairly the marketable proposition in the Yorkshire space. It was crucial, then, that he stored profitable and that he remained in place to be the A-side in any combat in which he was concerned. It was necessary, furthermore, that his success enabled him to stay at dwelling.

That he now finds himself preventing Wood in Sheffield, because the challenger, suggests Warrington, 31-2-1 (8), is in a task completely different from regular. It suggests he has needed to make sure allowances and that, in accepting this problem following a loss, he has realised he’s in some methods lucky to have been granted this chance in any respect. That’s true to some extent as nicely. Typically, when a boxer suffers a defeat, even a detailed one, as was the case with Warrington in opposition to Lopez, what they need to do is rebuild, if not begin once more fully. They should restore their confidence, if wanted, and they need to, extra importantly, work their way again up the rankings to earn a second or, in Warrington’s case, third shot at gold.

To be spared all that claims so much about Warrington’s marketability – even now, coming off a defeat. It says he’ll nonetheless shift tickets and appeal to eyeballs, regardless of his latest type. More than that, although, it says so much, once more, for the inevitability of a combat between Warrington and Wood. Because in the tip so good is the combat on paper, it hardly issues that one of many two had a wrestle and got here up brief in their final combat. Provided, in fact, they weren’t crushed out of sight, brutally knocked out, or confirmed indicators of degradation, there was all the time going to be a risk these two nine-stone fighters would meet in 2023, regardless of what belt was on line or whose type was higher.

Also, whereas not as horny as it might have been with each on equal footing, Warrington and his crew will argue that he has by no means been hungrier and that desperation (for an enormous comeback win) makes him extra harmful than ordinary. There could possibly be some reality to that, too. Certainly, given his latest type, which has been patchy to say the least (two defeats in his final 4, in addition to a technical draw), there shall be an awesome effort on the a part of Warrington to persuade his doubters that he’s not on the slide and that he nonetheless has a lot to supply at a better degree than even this. At 32, and when taking into consideration his latest outcomes, it might be straightforward to put in writing Warrington off and take into account his prime years to have already handed, but, on the other hand, he shall be fast to level out that Wood, the favorite this weekend, is three years his senior at 35.

Wood, nevertheless, in distinction to Warrington, reveals no indicators of slowing down or struggling at this sort of degree. In reality, there’s every likelihood he’s higher now than he has ever been and that the numerous years he spent toiling on the home scene, profitable some and shedding some, might have aided him throughout what has grow to be an Indian Summer in his skilled profession. Clearly, he has developed through the years and has grown from a few of these experiences he went by means of early on; when, for instance, he was stopped in six rounds by Gavin McDonnell in 2014 or, six years later, outpointed by Jazza Dickens over 10.

Since that loss in opposition to Dickens in 2020, Wood has been virtually unrecognisable, each in phrases of angle and self-belief. Helped little question by the upset win in opposition to Can Xu in 2021, he has moved up a number of ranges in simply two years and now carries the look of somebody who believes he belongs in the higher echelons of the featherweight division.

If it’s primarily self-belief that has bought him right here, it might make full sense. After all, what allowed Wood to drag out that win in opposition to Xu was self-belief, and this additionally occurred to be an element in his subsequent combat in opposition to Michael Conlan, a combat in which Wood was dropped closely in the primary spherical but nonetheless believed he would work his way again into the combat and finally grind his Irish opponent down and cease him. This he did, too, fairly spectacularly in the dying embers of the twelfth.

Leigh Wood knocks out Michael Conlan on the Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham on March 12, 2022 (Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)

That, for apparent causes, ended up being the 2022 “Fight of the Year” and made Wood, 27-3 (16), a must-see fighter from then on. Not solely that, it set him on a collision course with the fearsome Mexican Mauricio Lara, in opposition to whom Warrington suffered his first professional loss in 2021. By now recognized in the UK as a harmful, relentless and highly effective featherweight, Lara sought to do to Wood what he had beforehand carried out to Warrington and managed it as nicely, regardless of the combat being nearer than the one he had in opposition to Warrington.

The stoppage occurred this time in spherical seven, versus the ninth, and it was no much less brutal, both. Wood, like Warrington, simply couldn’t deal with the firepower and ferocity of the person from Mexico City, and but, crucially, although knocked out that night time in Nottingham, Wood nonetheless took sufficient confidence from his efficiency to entertain the concept of a direct rematch. This, fairly naturally, would have been a combat many other fighters would have shirked, however seemingly Wood knew sufficient about Lara now to contemplate his seventh-round stoppage at his fingers to be the results of a mistake on his half slightly than something Lara did significantly nicely on the night time.

So it proved too. Second time round, with Wood nonetheless filled with perception, the Nottingham man caught to his recreation plan, prevented partaking an excessive amount of with Lara, and in the end made the larger man pay; not solely for beating him 5 months prior but in addition for lacking weight, which meant his WBA featherweight belt was vacant. It was, on reflection, yet one more turning level in the profession of Wood. For except for the easy reality he outpointed Lara and gained revenge, he was in a position to take action in a way that was mature and clever, exhibiting new dimensions to his recreation and new methods of having the ability to win.

Indeed, it’s this realisation, coupled with Warrington’s latest type, that may have many believing Wood must be backed to retain his belt this coming Saturday. Of the 2, it’s little question Wood who has displayed the expansion in latest years and it’s Wood, furthermore, whose longer levers and straighter punches one would assume will play havoc on Warrington’s messier, if nonetheless intense, assaults.

That’s to not say Warrington can’t or received’t have success in opposition to Wood, significantly with how bodily he likes to get, however it’s exhausting to see a situation in which Wood finds Warrington a tougher man to regulate than, say, Lara, who was all wild elbows and forearms, and even Conlan, whose method and counterpunching was one thing to which Wood needed to shortly get accustomed having been floored in spherical one. Warrington, in comparability to these, must be a extra simple beast to tame, but that doesn’t imply will probably be a combat any much less violent or troublesome in phrases of what it takes from Wood and what it provides to the followers. Nor does that imply profitable a choice in opposition to Warrington, which is the choose, will go away Wood feeling remotely contemporary and even dominant. Because, regardless of the consequence, this shall be powerful – for each.

On the Sheffield undercard, there’s a respectable all-British middleweight combat between Kieron Conway, 19-3-1 (4), and Linus Udofia, 18-1 (9), who will meet over 12 rounds, in addition to a step up for featherweight Hopey Price, 11-0 (4), in opposition to Connor Coghill, additionally unbeaten at 14-0 (1). Meanwhile, in the ladies’s super-welterweight division, Terri Harper, 14-1-1 (6), and Cecilia Braekhus, 37-2 (9), lastly meet following the last-minute postponement of their authentic combat again in May (scrapped as a consequence of an sickness suffered by Braekhus).