Eddie Hearn Thinks If Josh Warrington Turned Around The Fight Would Have Continued

Eddie Hearn thinks Josh Warrington vs. Leigh Wood would have continued had Warrington turned around.

Wood was likely down on the scorecards when he scored a seventh-round TKO over Warrington to retain his WBA featherweight title. Early on, it appeared the weight cut had an impact as Wood was slow, while Warrington was piecing him up.

Yet, in the seventh round, Wood landed a bunch of heavy shots that rocked Warrington. After being rocked, Warrington turned his back to the ref and walked to his corner, so the ref decided to wave the fight off, which wasn’t a surprise for Eddie Hearn but was disappointing.

“It’s going to take a big fight for Leigh Wood at the City Ground,” Hearn said (h/t BoxingScene). “I want to see the fight back. If Josh would have turned round, they would have 100 percent let the fight carry on. If the ref did call it off at eight, it was too early because he should have given him the opportunity to turn around. The ref said to me ‘he wouldn’t turn round and if he doesn’t turn round I can’t let him continue’. When you look at frontrunners for sizes of fights at the City Ground, I think the rematch is probably the biggest one.”

Although Eddie Hearn understands the decision, Josh Warrington was vocal in his disappointment about the stoppage as he felt he was fine.

“I just feel a bit hard done by, it was the end of round, get to my feet, look at my dad with a smile on my face, turn round at (the count of) eight and it’s being waved off,” Warrington said.

With the loss, Josh Warrington dropped to 31-3-1 and is now on a two-fight losing streak as he lost a decision to Luis Alberto Lopez last December.

Do you agree with the stoppage?