For a while, the March 12 bout for the WBA featherweight title between champion Leigh Wood and challenger Michael Conlan was a guilty pleasure, something we talked about in admiration but didn’t celebrate.

The matchup at Nottingham Arena was like other great UK fights - Nigel Benn vs Gerald McClellan, Chris Eubank vs Michael Watson – all dulled by the damage done to McClellan and Watson after the war in the ring was over. There was a similar feeling as Conlan was knocked out of the ring in the 12th round by Wood and taken from the arena floor on a stretcher.

It was boxing at its best and worst at the same time.

Thankfully, the next morning, Conlan was out of the hospital and posing for a photo with Wood, who he wanted a rematch with following the first loss of his pro career. He was healthy, as competitive as ever, and now we could celebrate BoxingScene.com’s 2022 Fight of the Year, a battle neither knew was something special until it was over.

“At the time, I was so focused and in the zone, it wasn’t until the fight finished when I realized what had happened, probably once I landed my last shot around that time,” said Wood. “That happens with a lot of my fights; it’s almost surreal because of the intense concentration.”

“I just felt in a flow state for the majority of the fight, and everything seemed to be flowing well, but after watching some of the highlights I get it,” added Conlan, who admitted that he hasn’t watched the entire fight yet.

“I’ve only watched highlights,” said the Belfast native. “I still find it too hard to watch in full, and until I know there is a rematch, if ever, I won’t watch it. Looking back on it and what I seen I was happy; I was able to show my skillset and ability. I was so close to being champion and it’s giving me even more of a drive to reach that goal.”

Wood, on the other hand, has had it on repeat, whether the full fight or the highlights, and rightfully so.

“I’ve watched it all the way through, maybe three or four times, but I’ve watched the highlights probably hundreds of times, as I still get tagged in them daily,” he laughs. 

The finish will be what is always remembered, as Wood, trailing on all three judges’ scorecards, landed a right hand that froze Conlan and sent him out of the ring in the 12th round, ending the bout. But the drama started long before those final seconds, as Conlan stunned the crowd late in the first round with a looping left hand that dropped Wood hard to the canvas.

Wood may have been fortunate that the knockdown occurred when it did, as he was still wobbled a couple times by Conlan’s laser-like left in the second round. After another good round for the Irishman in the third, Wood began to work his way back into the fight in the fourth, yet just when the hometown hero got on a nice run, Conlan would nullify it with a run of his own, and entering the late rounds, Wood was going to have to make something happen.

So he did, scorecards be damned.

“At the time I wasn’t thinking about scorecards,” said Wood. “In my head, it was to get him out down the stretch. Regardless of anything, that was always the plan and what we worked on. Even with the bad start, the plan worked, as he was really struggling from Round 10 into the championship rounds.”

Conlan surged in the 11th, teeing off on the champion at close range, but in the closing seconds of the frame, Wood scored a knockdown of his own, one Conlan and trainer Adam Booth vehemently protested, as they believed it was a slip.

That extra point for Wood on all three cards closed the scoring gap to 104-103, 104-103 and 105-102. If he took the 12th round, he would earn a draw and keep his crown. Wood didn’t want a draw, he wanted to finish the challenger, and he got his wish.

“I couldn’t of had a worse start, getting caught and dropped with a good shot,” said Wood. “But I did what champions do and I picked myself up and got the job done against adversity.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda bittersweet,” Conlan reflected. “It’s great that it was Fight of the Year but being the loser of a Fight of the Year doesn’t do much for me. It’s maybe something in the future I’ll appreciate much more.”

That’s the fighter in Mick Conlan, and on that night in March, he met a kindred spirit in Leigh Wood. Hall of Famer Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini once told me that after one of his wars, he would know his opponent better than anyone because he saw what they had on the inside. I asked both Wood and Conlan if they felt the same way. 

“I’m not sure about that,” said Wood. “I think we will always have that competitive look towards each other that may always be there, and that’s what will always make a great fight between ourselves.”

“Right now?” asked Conlan, who defeated Miguel Marriaga and Karim Guerfi to close out 2022. “No. I don’t feel that yet, pre-fight I gave Leigh credit for his toughness and resilience but maybe I do understand him more so now than before, but I don’t think we will have that same bond.”

Yeah, these two are going to fight again. And expect more of the same.

RUNNERS-UP

Sebastian Fundora-Erickson Lubin

Jermell Charlo-Brian Castano

Jai Opetaia-Mairis Briedis

Sivenathi Nontshinga-Hector Flores