Last September, Josh Warrington quietly laid down his gloves in the middle of the ring at Wembley Stadium.

The two-time IBF featherweight champion had just lost frustrating, disappointing decision to The Ring’s No. 3 ranked junior lightweight, Anthony Cacace, on the undercard of the heavyweight title fight between Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua.

After years of bad luck, bad results, injury and frustration, Warrington made his way home to Leeds believing that he had boxed for the final time but it didn’t take long for the 35-year-old to come to the conclusion that he couldn’t leave the sport that has given him so much in such tame fashion.

He now has the opportunity to make some real noise.

Back in October 2023, Warrington took on two-time WBA featherweight champion, Leigh Wood. Written off beforehand, Warrington produced his best performance for years before being controversially stopped on his feet at the end of the seventh round.

On February 21 he gets the opportunity to exact revenge on Wood. The two will meet at Nottingham in a 12-round junior lightweight fight. DAZN will stream the action.

“Last year I mourned for three weeks because I’d retired and that [boxing] is all I've known since I've been a seven-year-old lad,” Warrington (32-4-1, 8 KOs) said at the fight’s launch press conference.

“It's shaped my life, it's shaped my family's life, it's shaped everything but I’ve just put things in perspective and I’m going into this fight in a different mindset and physically, well, you can't argue what I'm doing in the gym.”

In April, Warrington got back to winning ways with a low profile eight round victory over Asad Khan but has spent the remainder of 2025 working in the gym, staying fit and looking for a big fight.

Spending months grinding away for little reward is a test for anyone who has achieved what Warrington has but he revealed that he has thrown himself into his work.

A large hostile crowd should be in attendance in Nottingham and Warrington feels ready to step back into the limelight.

“Over this last year, it's been something that I've really needed,” he said.

“[I was] ranked number one in the world. Top 10 in pound-for-pound rankings and then defeat, rematches, broken jaws and then waiting 10 months, waiting 11 months for fights. It's like my head's been all over the place.

“Last Christmas and the birth of my little baby son, it just made me step away from boxing. Now, I feel like I'm resurrected.”