In much the same way as he changed his tactics to defuse and outclass Mauricio Lara just three months after losing his WBA title to the aggressive Mexican in 2023, Wood boxed, moved and turned a potentially hard fight into a relatively comfortable night's work.

After the fight, Warrington accepted that he was "off the pace" but, having now spent 19 rounds in the ring with the two-time IBF featherweight champion, 37-year-old Wood believes he was being hard on himself and the win was down to the pre-fight plan implemented by he and his training team of Ben Davison and Lee Wylie.

"I think I boxed a better version of Josh Warrington tonight than I did the first time," the two-time world featherweight champion said at the post-fight press conference.

"Fitness, strength, and all the rest of it. He was a little bit more cautious as well.

"I think if I'd have boxed this Warrington that time, I probably would have had a harder fight but we knew him better. We knew his timing better, thanks to Lee and Ben.

"I thought I'd be able to catch him a bit clean. I did early on and then he thought, 'I'm not going to give you them [shots]' and then he was a little bit more cautious so my shots weren't quite there. I had to make little adjustments, he did as well. He hurt me to the body in the third - really hurt me as well - but I hurt him to the body too."

After the fight, most expected Wood to take the microphone, thank his fans and announce that he was calling time on his thrill-a-minute career. He chose not to do that and will take some time to consider his future.

Saturday night marked the six-year anniversary of Wood's defeat to Jazza Dickens in the Golden Contract featherweight tournament final.

At that point, Wood was a 30-year-old fighter without a plan. Plenty of other fighters would have decided that their time had passed and given up on their dreams. Wood didn't.

Wood's story is regularly described as a fairytale or dramatic turnaround but that isn't strictly true.

The Nottingham man was always a talented, championship level fighter with thudding power, it just took him time figuring out how to utilise his abilities at the highest level.

His decision to travel south and join Ben Davison's gym was the catalyst for his transformation into one of Britain’s most exciting and accomplished fighters of the past decade.

"I was sat in my bath in Sheffield," he remembered.

"I was 30 years old. I was still living in my mom's room, spare room, box room I thinking, "I'm 30. I'm not getting my chances or opportunities and was at the Ingle Gym. I thought to myself, "I could go on a crazy run and win the British, the European, the world titles and not lose.

"I moved down to Ben and his team, did go on that crazy run and it's quite surreal."