Leigh Wood (boxer)

Wood fought Gavin McDonnell for the British super bantamweight title on 22 February 2014 but loss after the fight was stopped in the 6th round due to Wood being stunned and unable to defend himself. Wood put on an impressive performance and was in control of the fight after winning the first 5 rounds, but prior to the fight Wood had to lose weight for himself to make the weight limit for the fight and after a few rounds Wood was becoming tired.[6] After the loss to McDonnell, Wood had a comeback fight against Martin Mubiru and put in good performance and earned a 3rd-round TKO.[7]

Then after 3 more fights and 3 more wins at featherweight, he stepped up in class to box the man who took his former foe to a draw Josh Wale in a British title eliminator. Wood outboxed Josh Wale for the majority of the fight finishing with last 2 of the 10 rounds with eye catching combinations and powerful right hands, winning the fight unanimously on all 3 scorecards.[8]

Wood's next fight was a redemption fight for the Midlands Area featherweight title against Lee Glover who beat Wood in the Amateurs 7 years prior. Wood came out in the first round pot shooting and making Glover miss before landing some big punches before the bell. The second round went the same way, finally Wood stopping Glover with a big left and perfectly picked flurry of punches, sending Glover to the canvas and not making the count.[9]

On 6 July 2021, it was announced that Wood would challenge WBA (Regular) featherweight champion Xu Can in Brentwood, Essex on 31 July as part of Matchroom's Fight Camp.[10] Despite being an 11/4 underdog,[11] Wood outboxed the champion during periods of the fight, and prevailed with an upset victory via twelfth-round technical knockout.[12]

His first defence of his new title came against Michael Conlan on 12 March 2022 at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. Wood was knocked down in the final seconds of the first round, Conlan continued to dominate the fight for the next few rounds, but in the later rounds Wood came back into the fight, with Conlan going down in the 11th round, it was scored as a knockdown despite protests from Conlan's corner that it was a slip. In the 12th round, with Conlan being ahead on all the scorecards,[13] Wood managed to knock out Conlan 1:25 into the round, with Conlan falling through the ropes and being taken to hospital for checks.[14] Conlan said since that he is "all good" and that the scans were "clear".[15]