By Charles Brun: A very drained & dead-looking Leigh Wood weighed 125.7 lbs, and Josh Warrington came in at 125.3 lbs during Friday’s weigh-in for their 12 round contest on Saturday night on DAZN. The contest is taking place at the SheffieldArena in Sheffield, England.
It looks like Wood took off too much weight, as he resembles one of the zombies from the 1968 classic, ‘Night of the Living Dead.’
Leigh has always been big at the weight, which is why he’s enjoyed success in the last couple of years, but we could see him bigger than normal on Saturday night, looking to use his size advantage to overpower the smaller, weaker Warrington.
Wood (27-3, 16 KOs) will defend his WBA featherweight title for the last time against Warrington (31-2-1, 8 KOs). Win or lose on Saturday night, the 35-year-old Wood is moving up to super featherweight to challenge Joe Cordina for his IBF belt next.
If Wood is victorious on Saturday and chooses not to vacate his WBA title, he will need to defend against his mandatory Otabek Kholmatov (11-0, 10 KOs).
In that case, Eddie Hearn would need to figure out a way for Wood to swerve Kholmatov AGAIN like he did this time because Leigh has virtually no chance of winning. Hence, he’s vacating his WBA title and moving to 130 rather than staying at 126.
Thankfully, we didn’t see any oddities involved with Wood’s last fight involving the weigh-in. It’s still troubling that the former WBA featherweight champion Mauricio Lara wasn’t permitted to make weight and was stripped of his belt before his fight with Wood.
Billy Joe Saunders: “In this fight here, no one can afford to let the first four or five rounds go here because then the pressure is put on the other fighter,” said Joe Saunders to Matchroom Boxing, discussing the Leigh Wood vs. Josh Warrington fight.
“Warrington has a bit more experience than Leigh Wood. That’s my only worrying concern for Leigh Wood. He’s been looking good in camp, and he’s been sparring well. Obviously, we know sparring & fighting are two different things.
“Obviously, I’m going to go for my man, Leigh Wood, but we’re in for a serious fight. This fight is going to be potentially fight of the year.”
Eddie Hearn: “Tomorrow, you’re going to see 5,000 to support their guy. They’ve had a few drinks. It’s going to be absolutely wild in there. You saw those two come together as if to say, ‘Let’s go tomorrow night. Let’sput everything on the line.'”
Tony Bellew: “Has your opinion changed after looking at them on the scales?”
Hearn: “We all know the difficulty [to make weight]. It’s tough. I thought Warrington looked well. I thought he looked fresher at weight. I thought Leigh looked a little tight on the number.
“If you make weight correctly and you do the science right, you’re going to come in tomorrow night; you’re going to be refueled to a big number and ready to go.
“I think we all know that Leigh Wood is going to be six to ten pounds heavier than Josh Warrington tomorrow night. I would think. Does that work in your favor? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, but Warrington has looked very composed.
“For all Leigh’s success in the recent years, Josh has been doing this for a long, long time. He does have a lot more championship experience than Leigh Wood, but Leigh Wood is also extremely confident.”
