Fighter of the Week (10/2-10/8): Leigh Wood
On a very interesting weekend of boxing, we got a recurring result that resulted in this week's Fighter of the Award. "Leigh-thal" Leigh Wood of Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, lost the first half of the fight and then completely revised the tide. Wood landed something big and saved the day. Wood has now recorded KOs in the second half of the fight, three times in the last few years, scoring late KOs against Can Xu, Mick Conlon, and now Josh Warrington to retain his WBA Super Featherweight world title. A belt he will likely not defend again as he will likely vacate and move up to 130. Additionally, the Nottinghamian moved his record to 28-3 (17) established himself as the best featherweight in the world, and took home this week's Fighter of the Week award.
It was a common script for Wood. He could do nothing right and was losing round after round. It was vintage 2018-19 "Leeds Warrior'', who was dominating round after round with a high punch output, point precision combination punching, and a ferocious body attack. Warrington had put a minimum of five rounds in the back, perhaps he had swept the first half of the fight. He was in control in the seventh minus a point deduction and then it happened yet again. Just as the public started questioning how much snap Wood had on his punches, was the weight cut too much? His legs didn't look stable etc. Wood then settled that once and for all. Late in the seventh round, the southpaw Wood scored a right hook that wobbled Warrington. The Nottinghamian followed up with two a hook, left-hand two-piece that put Warrington down. The former champ made it to his feet, but the referee decided he had seen enough and called a halt to the bout. Wood moved his record to 28-3 (17), and the Leeds Warrior fell to 31-3-1 (8) and has won just one fight since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Wood has flipt the script of his career. After the Jazza Dickens, it appeared that Wood was no more than a fun, domestic-level fighter, who would never really compete at the world level. Those days are certainly over, and the WBA featherweight champ will most likely look to make a move to 130 pounds and become a two-division world champion. The options seem clear for Wood. WBC champ O'Shaquie Foster defends his belt against his mandatory later this month, so that would line up for an early 2024 fight, or Wood could battle the winner of the Joe Cordina-Edward Vazquez fight which is scheduled on November 4th. The week after, Foster defends against Eduardo Hernandez. Either defense lines up both time-wise and from a promotional standpoint.
