Leigh Wood, Josh Warrington, and the importance of genuine nastiness in boxing

There has to be a bit of genuine nastiness in any successful British boxing rivalry. Boxers have shared 45 championship rounds and not really disliked each other, and met in trilogies that lacked a lasting moment of hate.

Josh Warrington and Leigh Wood fight on Saturday in Nottingham, in a long overdue rematch and a fight that other domestic rivalries should be measured against. Warrington and Wood is nasty; it is also a fight for survival at boxing’s elite level.

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Their first meeting was in 2023 in Sheffield, which was fairly neutral, and Wood was the defending WBA featherweight champion. They could have met a few years earlier; they had both had spells as world champions at the same weight and time. They had a natural and rare rivalry as world champions, and they were mentioned as opponents for each other.

Going into their first fight there was a lot of hostility and abuse. Wood was champion, Warrington had lost his title in his previous fight, 10 months earlier. They both made claims about the other not wanting the fight. It turned personal and stayed personal on the night.

It was a truly savage affair with a furious start: late shots, low punches, point deductions, warnings, cuts, anger and – going into the seventh round – it looked like Warrington was going to pull away. After six completed rounds, Warrington was up on all three scorecards (58-56 and 59-55 twice) and Wood was struggling.

The fight switched in a second with one short hook and then, as Warrington slumped, a fast combination dropped him heavily to the canvas. There were just seconds left in the seventh round when he beat the count and staggered, stunned and confused, to a corner.

It was correctly stopped; he was in no condition to continue. Warrington was angry with the stoppage, still is. A rematch was immediately talked about but just never happened. Still, their rivalry intensified.

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There has been a lot of talk and uncertainty since that first fight. There was even a rumour that they would meet in a bare-knuckle match. Since their dramatic first clash they have both had spells of inactivity. Wood has fought just the once and he was stopped; Warrington has won and lost since that night in Sheffield in October 2023. They have aged and slowed, but their rivalry remains as vicious as ever.

“He’s average now, and he has looked nervous in recent fights,” insisted Wood, who is 37 and has been a pro since 2011.

“I will show that I’m better than him and he knows that. I hate him and he knows that,” said Warrington, who is 35 and first won a world title in 2018.

There will be no fancy frills in the first round of Saturday’s rematch; the referee is likely to be a very busy man all night. Warrington believes Wood got lucky, Wood laughs at that suggestion. They clash on every detail and that is always what a great domestic rivalry needs: two men, packed with hate, one with revenge on his mind and one confident he can repeat the outcome of the first fight.

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They both have tremendous belief in totally different endings. It might not always be pretty, but it will be captivating until the bloody, hard and inevitable stoppage. Both can win and both can so easily lose – it is the dream domestic rematch.