Add into the equation that Wood was cut over the right eye and it was ruled by a punch rather than a butt and it would be fair to say that this looked to be the evening for Josh Warrington to show that he is still of championship caliber.
And then (Cue the Ray Stevens music) and then... Along Came Wood.
With seconds remaining in a seventh round that Warrington was winning, Wood wobbled Warrington with a huge right hook, and as Warrington uneasily swayed on spindly legs, Wood smashed two more hooks that sent Warrington to the floor on his back.
Warrington surprisingly beat the count but even though the bell rang, Warrington's legs were wobbling and the referee stopped the fight, even though Warrington would have had the minute between rounds to attempt to revive himself.
While I wish Warrington would have been given that chance, it was understandable why the fight was ended as Warrington was very rubber-legged after getting up.
I had Warrington up after six rounds 58-56 (4-2 in rounds) and the second of the two rounds that I thought Wood won was a very close round and I was about to give Warrington round seven as well before the amazing conclusion.
Wood has pulled a win from the fire before, most notably with his final round knockout of Michael Conlan with Wood well behind on the scorecards, so this is par for course for Leigh Wood, who announced after the fight that he will be vacating the WBA title at featherweight to move to junior lightweight, where Matchroom (Wood's promoter) happens to have a champion in the division and one from the UK at that in IBF champion Joe Cordina of Wales.
Wood vs Cordina seems like a fun fight stylistically and would likely draw a large crowd.
Warrington asked for a rematch but is unlikely to receive it and I wonder if perhaps he shouldn't consider walking away now from the sport.
Warrington has suffered devastating knockout losses in two of his last five fights and is only 1-3-1 in that tenure although he put up a battle in each of those fights.
Still, he retains his name and resume' and fought well against Wood, so there may be some value in fighting on.
In the evening on DAZN from Las Vegas, two former champions moved up to cruiserweight in a title eliminator as former Super Middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez met former Light Heavyweight champion Joe Smith.
The fight saw more action than I expected with Ramirez earning a deserved if too wide unanimous decision with all three judges scoring Ramirez a winner at 99-91.
I scored Ramirez the winner 97-93 and thought Smith deserved better from the judges although he clearly lost.
Ramirez, who has struggled to make weight at both 168 and 175 pounds, looked very comfortable at the weight and outboxed Smith throughout and might be an interesting factor as a cruiserweight.
Boxing Challenge
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