{"id":498043,"date":"2026-02-23T03:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498043\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T03:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:36:26","slug":"fights-like-wood-warrington-are-the-lifeblood-of-british-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498043\/","title":{"rendered":"Fights like Wood-Warrington are the lifeblood of British boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTTINGHAM, England — Eddie Hearn made the point of referencing it all week when fielding questions about Zuffa Boxing and Dana White.<\/p>\n

While Zuffa hosted shows “in their garage in front of 120 people,” as Hearn said, he and Matchroom were preparing for a sold-out arena in Nottingham and another great night of British boxing.<\/p>\n

“This is our bread and butter,” Hearn repeated in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Two icons of the sport, Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington<\/a>, who have history, rivalry and most importantly, legions of loyal fans. Nights like this leave fans wanting more.<\/p>\n

While shows around the world, from Riyadh to Las Vegas and everywhere in between, may catch the eye and have a bit more glamour, domestic shows around the UK are the lifeblood of British boxing.<\/p>\n

Wood’s rivalry with Warrington has captured fans for over two years.\u00a0Mark Robinson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It wasn’t just the main event. The undercard was littered with local heroes like Molly McCann and Dave Allen.<\/p>\n

They are the nights people remember, helping form connections with fighters and promoters.<\/p>\n

Both Wood and Warrington have given fans plenty of those memorable nights, and Wood, of Nottingham, made a point of saying he hoped he had inspired a few people along the way.<\/p>\n

They both work hard in their communities, too.<\/p>\n

“I’m a patron for Switch-Up boxing, which is not just inspiring kids to follow in my footsteps, it’s also a place that brings young offenders into the gym and gives them a second chance,” Wood said.<\/p>\n

“If they’ve done something silly or got into trouble, they’ll get them into work. But inspiring people, when I was a kid I feel very lucky to have been part of Carl [Froch] when I was a the amateur boxing club, the Phoenix … See him bit-by-bit fill that arena.”<\/p>\n

Fighters like Wood and Warrington are so important to their cities, with boxing able to reach people in ways other sports can’t.<\/p>\n

Fans enjoyed another memorable night in Nottingham.\u00a0Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing<\/p>\n

Nights like Saturday in Nottingham are the shop window.<\/p>\n

Warrington was emotional when he thanked his fans and he is all too aware of the sacrifices many of them make to watch him fight all over the country.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, my bottom lip was trembling [after],” Warrington said.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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“You’ve got people spending their hard earned money to come to fight. Some of these guys have followed me miles and miles, sacrificed so much. Weddings, funerals, birthdays.”<\/p>\n

While Hearn promotes shows across the globe, he said domestic fights will always be their priority.<\/p>\n

“Next week we’re in Arizona, we’re going to have 10,000 [fans] for [Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez], that will be wild but it’s just a bit different in there,” Hearn said. “That’s quite unique where you’ve got two football clubs supporting their own.<\/p>\n

“1,500 from Leeds, the rest from Nottingham, songs going backwards-and-forwards … The atmosphere was great.”<\/p>\n

Rivalries can creep up out of nowhere, but as the sport changes and new markets emerge, the more domestic dust-ups and local superstars there are, the better for everyone.<\/p>\n

Wood vs. Warrington II was a great reminder of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NOTTINGHAM, England — Eddie Hearn made the point of referencing it all week when fielding questions about Zuffa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-498043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}