At the end of the sixth round of his WBA featherweight title fight with Josh Warrington, Leigh Wood looked a beaten man.
Headlines were written, his travelling fans from Nottingham had been all but silenced, and he appeared set to hand his belt over to his rival from Leeds.
A few minutes later, Wood’s fans were in raptures and journalists were frantically rewriting their copy following the 35-year-old’s sensational technical knockout win over Warrington.
Wood may have been the only man in Sheffield who truly believed he could still win. For him, coming back when all seems lost is standard practice.
“It’s some turnaround, some kind of Cinderella story,” he told the post-fight news conference.
“My team have changed me as a fighter, and I would not have won titles without them.”
The Cinderella story could apply to Wood’s win here – achieved with a shattering left hook delivered when Warrington, who had dominated proceedings, lowered his guard for a second.
This was followed by a devastating combination of five punches, culminating with a strike to the left temple which put the challenger flat on his back and out of the fight.
But Wood was talking about his career. In 2020 he was beaten by Jazza Dickens, costing him his WBO European featherweight title and resulting in a year out of the ring amid the coronavirus pandemic, as he entered his mid-30s with talk of retirement circling.
It seemed at that point Wood, who had already had to re-climb the mountain once following a British super-bantamweight title defeat by Gavin McDonnell in 2014, simply could not cut it at the top.
But since 2021, Wood has found a career momentum which seems to only be gathering in pace. Winning the WBA title from Xu Can, defending it against Michael Conlan with a 12th round knockout while trailing on all scorecards, his victory over Mauricio Lara after the Mexican had bested him months earlier.
And now this, which Wood himself calls his crowning glory.
‘I ain’t got any quit in me’
“That was not my best performance, but that’s my best win,” he said. “It’s a massive scalp against a great fighter.
“I ain’t got any quit in me. This fight was the same as my career, not the best start but I turned it around.”
Both Wood and trainer Ben Davison claimed that they were aware that Warrington would come out swinging and that he would have to hang on at points.
They cannot have expected Wood to have to hang on as much as he did, especially after round three when two Warrington flurries had the title holder on the ropes with a swelling right eye.
Warrington, knowing his career was on the line following his shock loss to Luis Alberto Lopez last December, started with frenetic energy but seemed to be settling into a dominant rhythm in the middle rounds.
He lacked the finishing blow though – something Wood had in spades, as one of the most engaging British bouts in recent years was ended in explosive style.
“We knew areas Josh would dominate, where Leigh would dominate,” said Davison. “I thought Josh was starting to tire, but this wasn’t going to be anything but a fight of the year contender.
“They have certain level of character that talent can’t give you.”
For Wood, his future has some certainty. His dream of a bout at the City Ground, home of his beloved Nottingham Forest, will surely come to fruition.
‘This was one bad night at the office’
For two-time world champion Warrington, after successive damaging defeats, his next step is less clear – although retirement talk seems premature.
Warrington, who was backed by vociferous support from his home town of Leeds, was quick to rebuff questions in that vein by pointing out that, at 32, he is three years younger than Wood.
He also demonstrated in those first six rounds, much more than he did in a lacklustre 12 versus Lopez, that he still has plenty to offer.
And he felt he could have offered more here, claiming referee Michael Alexander called a halt prematurely.
“I’m devastated,” he said. “I was cruising that fight, ahead on all cards, then I switched off for a second.
“I thought I would be given the opportunity to sit down, gather myself, but this was one bad night at the office.
“This is my seventh world title fight, I should be given the opportunity to carry on [in this fight]. My senses were all with me, I heard the bell go.”
Talk inevitably turned to a rematch, with promoter, trainers and both boxers seeming open to the idea, although Wood and Davison were clear it would not be at featherweight after he struggled to make weight for this fight.
Following this thriller, that is certainly a sequel boxing fans would be excited to see. And if it happens, no-one should dare doubt Wood until the very, very end.
