Both men have suffered defeats since their first controversial encounter, making Saturday’s sold-out Nottingham clash a last roll of the dice for their careers
Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington have made their rematch prediction clear: Saturday at the sold-out Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham won’t go the distance. Both fighters expect an early finish, which basically means they’re bracing for war. The original fight happened over two years ago when Wood (28-4, 17 KOs) won with a controversial Round 7 knockout that left Warrington (32-4-1, 8 KOs) furious about the stoppage. He claimed he could have continued. Wood insisted the finish was correct. That unresolved dispute has festered for more than 24 months, creating genuine bad blood. Now, with both having suffered defeats since then, Saturday represents a last legitimate chance at redemption. Neither can afford to lose this rematch.
What’s interesting about their mutual prediction for an early finish is what it reveals about how they view each other. Warrington was ahead on the scorecards in the first fight before Wood landed that controversial five-punch combination. So technically, Warrington was winning. If he boxes the same way Saturday, he should theoretically win the fight. But he’s predicting an early finish, which suggests he doesn’t think either fighter is capable of maintaining that level of controlled boxing under the pressure of a rematch. “Absolutely, that’s the only way I see it going to be honest with you,” Warrington said at the Thursday press conference. “I can’t see what Leigh’s going to do differently to make it go quicker.”
Wood’s trainer, Ben Davison, essentially confirmed that this rematch will be violent and uncompromising. “These two guys have got hearts the size of tanks, engines for a thousand men, one’s got machine guns in his fists, one got a nuclear bomb,” Davison said. “It only adds up to these two having another war.” That’s not a coach predicting technical boxing. That’s someone expecting a slugfest where mutual respect for technique gets abandoned in favor of mutual destruction.
Wood, fighting in his home city, is confident but not arrogant about Saturday’s test
“I’m confident. That’s not me thinking it will be easy, I don’t expect it to be easy, nor do I want it to be easy because I feel better when I go through a bit and get the victory,” he said. That’s genuine fighter mentality. Wood isn’t predicting dominance. He’s predicting difficulty followed by victory. He’s essentially saying: I expect Warrington to test me, push me, make this hard and that’s exactly what I want before I prove I’m the better man.
What makes the rematch particularly compelling is that both fighters have lost since their first encounter. This isn’t two undefeated men settling a score. This is two fighters with recent defeats fighting for career resurrection. The loser doesn’t just lose the fight. The loser probably retires. That existential pressure creates the exact conditions for early finishes. When everything is on the line, you take enormous risks. When you take enormous risks against someone who knows you inside and out, wars happen fast.
Wood also paid tribute to Carl Froch, the Nottingham super-middleweight champion who inspired him as a kid. “I was talking to Froch yesterday and I was saying to him ‘you do actually inspire me Carl.’ I know I say it on camera, but you inspired me as a kid, going to that arena, watching him fight and going ‘I want to do this one day,'” Wood said. That connection to local boxing history grounds his Saturday mission in something beyond just personal victory. He’s fighting for his city, carrying forward a legacy of Nottingham fighters proving themselves on their home stage.
Saturday in Nottingham, two British rivals will finally settle their dispute. Neither expects it to go the distance. Both are prepared for war.
The rematch promises exactly that.
