Leigh Wood says video shows Josh Warrington stumbled after stoppage

Wood says unseen clip shows Warrington losing balance

Leigh Wood says he has video showing Josh Warrington stumbling seconds after their fight was stopped. He believes the footage proves the referee was right.

Wood’s seventh-round stoppage of Warrington in Sheffield in October 2023 has remained a point of disagreement, with Warrington maintaining he recovered in time to resume. Wood said the clip he has seen captures Warrington in the seconds immediately after the referee intervened, a period he believes was not widely shown.

Wood cites unseen footage

Speaking to BoxingScene, Wood said the footage shows Warrington struggling to regain his balance after the fight had already been waved off.

“I’ve got a clip on my phone,” Wood said. “When the ref stops the fight, he waves it off. Then the camera’s still rolling, and then he walks over to the ropes. He stumbles, the ropes keep him up, and then he fell over. Not many people have seen that.”

Wood said the sequence continued beyond the referee’s intervention, showing Warrington still affected as he moved across the ring.

“His corner was screaming at him to turn around,” Wood said. “He didn’t know where he was. After the ref stopped it, he stumbles over towards the ropes, trips up a little bit, ropes keep him up, and his friend from his corner ran over and helped him.”

Wood said the footage relates to the moments immediately after the referee halted the fight late in the seventh round, following a sequence in which Warrington was no longer defending himself. Warrington later said he had recovered and was ready to continue, but Wood said the video he reviewed shows Warrington was still compromised after the action had officially ended.

Wood said fighters will often insist they were capable of continuing regardless of their actual condition at the time.

“As a fighter, he’s going to say, ‘I was all right to go on,’” Wood said. “I would say that. But he was really hurt.”

Wood said the footage supports his view that the referee’s decision reflected Warrington’s condition in that moment, reinforcing his belief that the fight was stopped at the appropriate time.