NOTTINGHAM, England — Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington have predicted an early finish to their rematch on Saturday.
The rivals will finally come together for a second time over two years after their first fight, which Wood (28-4, 17 KOs), won with a Round 7 knockout.
Wood and Warrington (32-4-1, 8 KOs) have each suffered defeats since then, with Saturday’s clash a last roll of the dice for both fighters.
Warrington was ahead on the scorecards in the first fight before Wood landed a five-punch combination that ended the bout, albeit in controversial fashion.
Now, in front of a sell-out Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham with pride on the line, they agree the rematch is unlikely to go the distance.
“Absolutely, that’s the only way I see it going to be honest with you,” Warrington told Thursday’s news conference.
“I can’t see what Leigh’s going to do differently to make it go quicker. He tried to punch me in the first fight …
“We boxed him, we out-fought him, had him on the ropes, on the back foot, did everything we needed to do but left ourselves very open.”
Wood’s trainer, Ben Davison, praised both his own charge and their opponent for taking a high-risk fight which promises fireworks.
“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.”
Wood, fighting in his home city of Nottingham, said he was prepared to endure hardships again to get the victory.
“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 as you’ve seen with previous fights,” Wood said.
“I know what I need to do, it’s a lot clearer.”
Wood also praised fellow Nottingham fighter, former super-middleweight champion, Carl Froch.
“I was talking to Froch yesterday and I was saying to him ‘you do actually inspire me Carl,'” he said. “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.'”
