Leigh Wood is gearing up to face Anthony Cacace at the Nottingham Arena on May 10. Before the announcement of his fight, Matt Bozeat caught up with Wood to discuss life after boxing.
LEIGH WOOD has revealed to Boxing News that he intends to make 2025 his last year as a fighter. Wood says he has an “exit plan” in place for his future after boxing.
The former two-time WBA featherweight champion will fight Anthony Cacace up at 130lbs at the Nottingham Arena, England, on May 10.
He looks to claim Cacace’s IBO belt and, at 36 years old, Wood says it could prove to be his penultimate fight.
Wood, who has built a 28-3 record over a 13-year pro career, says he sees himself having “one or two” more before retiring.
The Ben Davison-trained Nottingham veteran was inactive in 2024 after injuries ruined plans for a rematch with Josh Warrington and a mooted clash with Cacace on the Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua undercard at Wembley Stadium in September.
Wood said: “This is definitely my last year of fighting. I’m 37 in August and I don’t want to fight much longer.
“Since I won the British title [by stopping Reece Mould in nine rounds in February, 2021] I have taken it fight by fight and I have kept performing.
“I can see me having one or two more.
“I wasn’t at my best against [Warrington] because I was struggling at the weight and I knew I had to move up. We will see what I’m like at super-featherweight.
“I have missed out on a lot [because of boxing]. I’m not moaning because this is what I chose to do and if I had the chance I would do it all over again.
“But I have missed Christmases and birthdays and stag dos and there have been weddings that I have just popped into for an hour because I had a fight coming up.
“There are things I want to do after boxing. I have made an exit plan.
“I want to be there for my family, my community and fighters coming through. I want to sponsor fighters coming through. I remember what it was like starting out when I had to rely on ticket sales and people helping out. I want to help out and as time goes on, I can see me getting into coaching.
“After this year I’m going to spend my time with my [three] kids and my properties. I have been careful [with my earnings]. I have made investments. I bought the barber’s shop where I go, I have a place opposite the [Nottingham] Forest ground and I live out in the countryside with a house that’s got land.”
Wood says his “exit plan” also includes a career in motocross.
“I was obsessed with bikes as a kid,” said Wood, “but it costs a lot of money and I never raced competitively.
“I have a bike ready to go now – once I’ve finished boxing. My friend rides at a good level and I will follow him and see how quickly I pick it up. It’s like boxing. There are different levels to it and I will see how fast I can pick it up. Flying through the air on a bike sounds like my sort of thing!”
Wood took a long route to the top of boxing.
He made his pro debut in October, 2011 aged 23 and it took him a few months short of a decade to become British champion.
Beaten by Gavin McDonnell for the vacant 122lbs belt in his 12th fight, Wood got his hands on the Lonsdale belt by stopping Mould in nine rounds on the undercard of the first Josh Warrington-Mauricio Lara clash.
Matches against Warrington and Lara seemed a long way off until out of the blue, promoter Eddie Hearn got Wood a shot at WBA champion Can Xu in July, 2021, the day before his 33rd birthday.
Wood shocked the Chinese fighter by building a points lead and then forcing a last-round stoppage and his first defence was the consensus best fight of 2022, a dramatic come-from-behind win over Michael Conlan at the Nottingham Arena.
“I think people see Warrington as my best win because of what he had achieved,” said Wood, “but the Conlan fight is the one everyone seems to remember. Every time I go somewhere someone will stop me and say: ‘I was there when you punched him out of the ring.’
“In round one when he put me down his dad and brother were banging their fists on the ring telling the referee to stop the fight and they ended up catching him after I punched him out of the ring in the last.”
Wood says a rematch against Conlan is a possibility, if the Irishman can find a way back from his stoppage loss to Jordan Gill, Wood’s housemate when they were based at the Ingles’ gym in Sheffield at the start of their pro careers.
“Why not do it again?” said Wood. “The fans want to see it. They always talk to me about it. But he needs to pick up some good wins first.”
Wood was hoping for a rematch with Warrington last year.
Behind on all three cards after six rounds of their first fight, Wood stopped the Leeds hero in the seventh.
“Last year was tough,” said Wood. “I was injured for a long period. I was training, but I was only doing what I could do. When my knee was bad, I worked on what else I could work on and the same when my hand was bad.
“I was hoping for the Warrington rematch and was trying to get Cacace at Wembley, but I wouldn’t have been ready for either of them. I had to be at 100 per cent or at least 80 per cent. At that level you have to be right.”
There had been talk of the fights going ahead at the City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest Football Club.
“It’s not that the club or promoter have said: ‘No,’” said Wood. “It’s just that it needs to be the right opponent. Whoever I fight there I’m confident I will sell big numbers, but 28,000-30,000 is a lot of people and it is a risk. Whoever I fight has to bring a lot of people with them as well. Josh would have been the ideal opponent. He was my biggest domestic rival, but now I have beaten him, I’m not so sure [how the rematch would sell].
“To fight at the City Ground is the dream. I was always terrible at football. I was always first to the ball, but when I got there I didn’t know what to do with it!
“I have got season tickets at the City Ground and fighting there is the last box to tick in my career, but I won’t complain if it doesn’t happen. I have done everything and more in boxing, I’ve made myself financially secure and Nottingham Arena is a great place to box. It’s like a cauldron in there. Everyone gets behind me and there’s a lid on the place. I love boxing in front of my own people.”
In his teens, Wood went to the Arena to support Carl Froch and missed out on boxing on the undercard when he fought Lucien Bute there in May, 2012.
“I was the floater,” he said, “and warmed up three or four times, but I didn’t get on.
“Me and Carl grew up in Gedling, went to the same school and we live near each other now. I think Carl gets a bit misinterpreted. He does things for views. It’s click bait. You have to be controversial if you want to get views and I think he enjoys it as well!”
Wood says he’s looking forward to campaigning at 130lbs after admitting defeat in his battle with the scales.
“People don’t realise how big I am,” he said. “I still have to come down [to make 130lbs], but not as much.
“It seemed like a victory just making the weight for my last five fights. There was a real relief when I made the weight. The hardest camp was the one for the Lara rematch [in May, 2023]. I was killing myself to make weight and when I was told he wasn’t going to make the weight I was furious.”
Wood outboxed the Mexican to regain the WBA belt he subsequently vacated after stopping Warrington.
“Those extra four pounds will be massive,” he said. “I will have a lot more in the tank.”
