Immediately after the fight, the two-time world featherweight champion acknowledged that his night’s work had been “harder than usual” but he refused to make a snap decision on what the defeat meant for his future.

A few hours later, the picture had cleared.

Wood plunged straight into the fight with the in-form Cacace after a 19-month lay-off and it was his first outing at junior lightweight after spending years grinding himself down to the 126 pound featherweight limit.

Although both were perfectly valid reasons for his performance, Wood didn’t use them as excuses to justify getting back into the ring.

He simply decided that he wanted to retire from the sport that has given him so much on his own terms rather than allowing the business to retire him.

“Once I got home, I just looked at myself and thought, 'I can't go out like that,' Wood (28-4, 17 KOs) told The Ring as he closes out preparations for his February 21 rematch with Josh Warrington.

“What happens in boxing is fighters win a fight and then think, 'That’s guaranteed me a big payday for my next fight' because you negotiate on your last performance.

“So what happens is a lot of fighters finish on a bad note, not because they want to finish on that, but because their value has gone once they lose.

“A lot of people win that last fight and then feel, 'Oh, I won that last fight and the bar was high, I’ll go again.' Then they lose and call it a day.

“I don't really want to go out like that. I want to finish on a positive note whilst I can.”

Deciding to get back into the ring is one thing, maintaining that enthusiasm whilst working through the injuries, tiredness and doubts that a high level training camp throws up is another altogether.

Wood has taken on an unofficial mentorship role at the Ben Davison Performance Centre and genuinely enjoys being involved with the gym’s younger fighters on a day-to-day basis.

Once the fight with Warrington was signed and sealed, he was able to ramp up his training rather than having to hit the ground running.

In the only other rematch of his career, Wood completely outboxed Mauricio Lara just three months after being stopped by the heavy-handed Mexican.

Maybe it is the comfort of knowing exactly what Warrington brings to the table or the relief at being able to concentrate purely on the sport he loves rather than worrying about what the future may hold, but Wood insists that he is performing better than he has for some time.

“I've been in the gym a while - a long time - and I think it’s showed,” he said.

“Normally in sparring, I take a bit of a pummelling sometimes because I'm so focused on the things I need to work on. I kind of neglect everything else and I try to be so dedicated to what I'm practising, I end up losing spars trying to practise the one thing. This time has been different.

“I've been practising the things I need to practise and I've been on fire in sparring and that never happens.”