Following Leigh Wood’s stunning victory over Michael Conlan, Tris Dixon caught up with the Nottingham man who loves proving people wrong

How are things?

LW: It’s back to usual for me, getting to see my kids and I took them to a swimming class, we had some food, took them shopping and I test drove a new car.

How are you feeling, a bit banged up?

LW: Not at all. I feel sound. I’ve got a couple of black eyes but I feel good, got a few stitches from the headclash, but apart from that I feel alright. All good.

What was it like in there on the night? People are already saying it’s the Fight of the Year.

LW: Truthfully? I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I enjoy it when it’s hard and you’ve got something to fight for, those nights when it’s one-sided and you’re winning, it’s not that enjoyable. You need that bit of a challenge, that thing where things aren’t quite going your way and you’ve got to dig something out to win. It’s so much sweeter and so much better.

It didn’t start well, with that first round knockdown?

LW: No, and that’s the first time I’ve been down in a fight, sparring or a fight, from a headshot. I did what I had to do and I did what I do naturally, which was just fight back and not be denied and stay positive. That’s how I am anyway. I didn’t think of it much at the time, I just thought, ‘F***, 10-8 round, I’ve got to claw that back.’ At the time, it felt like a flash knockdown but my camp said it was a heavy knockdown. I said, ‘Was it?’ I thought it was a flash knockdown and they said, ‘No, your head bounced off the canvas.’ ‘Did it?’ It is what it is. I got caught cold. He sold me downstairs.

Exactly, he was aiming that long left into your body…

LW: That’s it, establish downstairs and do it off that and normally I’d see those shots, I just didn’t, I was cold, I was parrying way too much with my backhand against the backhand.

What did you think of the atmosphere?

LW: Absolutely electric. I couldn’t wish for a better night, better atmosphere, better support off the Nottingham people and I knew it would be. I could tell from the weigh in. More people came to the weigh in than they did my professional debut. I just knew, I had a good feeling. People were saying, ‘Everyone’s going, they can’t wait to make some noise for you,’ and they did.

Going into the last round, what were you thinking?

LW: I wasn’t sure how the judges had it, but I knew I needed to win that last round and I possibly needed a knockdown and I was going to go out and give 100 percent, and I did.

When that shot landed, did you know right away?

LW: Once I hit him with that shot, it was like someone pulled the power chord out of him and I just knew.

You were very diplomatic with your celebrations…

LW: I didn’t know that he’d still be down [when Wood initially celebrated], I thought he’d be up and trying to get back into the ring. But he was down and there were medics over there. At first, I was elated, I was overjoyed, and I was like, ‘I’ve got him. I knew I’d get him, I didn’t know it would be this late but I knew I’d get him,’ but then someone said there were paramedics and straight away I thought, ‘I hope he’s alright.’ I don’t want to be celebrating and something bad happens. That’s the worst thing I could think of and I just wanted him to be alright.

How draining was the fight?

LW: Like I said, I enjoyed it. This is what I’m in boxing for, these kind of nights. They’re going to challenge me. I want the challenges. I want the challenge before, when people write me off, when people say I haven’t got a chance and the bookies have them as favourite. I like to hear that and I like to be in that fight and I like it to be challenging mentally and physically and I like to look back and say, ‘It was a hard night but I did it. I had to go through hell, but I did it.’

I saw you say immediately afterwards you couldn’t remember parts of it, have you got some of that back?

LW: It’s not so much the memory… Obviously I remember bits but every fight I get in the zone and it’s like lightspeed. It’s hard to remember specific things until you watch it back. Every fight is the same, like the Xu Can fight, I couldn’t remember a lot of it because I was extremely focused, driven and on the job.

Watching Conlan back, what do you make of it? Do you see why people are loving it?

LW: Yes, so much drama and excitement. We both gave what we had, and I watched it back and think I can box so much better than that but I did what I had to do.

People are now talking about Las Vegas, Leo Santa Cruz in America, the City Ground, Conlan’s talking about a rematch?

LW: To be honest, I want the [Nottingham] Forest ground fight [City Ground stadium]. That’s my dream and I want it this summer. I’m not too fussed about the opponent but I want the City Ground. As regards to Michael, I took less money in my own city as champion to fight Michael Conlan and if he won, there wouldn’t be a rematch. I’m telling you now there wouldn’t be a rematch. I took less money than him. They even laughed at me in the build-up saying I had to pay them to come to Nottingham and they were getting paid more than the champion and they were laughing about it, so what do I get out of fighting him again, apart from money? But money doesn’t motivate me. So, it’s a rematch where I don’t get anything out of it, he gets another chance. I could fight for another belt, that’s what I want to do. I want to fight the winner of Kiko Martinez-Josh Warrington or Leo Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is a big name, it’s one I’d definitely get respect for, but even to this day I feel I need to beat one of those top five to get the respect I deserve and I will. If it was up to me who would be next, it would be Leo Santa Cruz at the Forest ground but I don’t know that he’ll come over here, so it could be the Martinez-Warrington winner at the Forest ground.

Aren’t you finally getting the recognition now?

LW: It’s hard to keep everyone happy. People have always got something to say. With Xu Can they said he had been out of the ring a long time, with Conlan they’ll probably say I was lucky in the last round, there’s always something… But I will keep getting these big wins and I will keep doing the job and eventually the respect will come because I’m world class. It took me a long time to get here. I’ve been through so much to get here, I’ve always known how good I am and now I’m here I’m not prepared to give it up. I’m going to be working harder, I’m getting my confidence, I’m getting momentum and I’m going to be in another big fight and I’m probably going to get written off again and I can’t wait to show how much more I’ve got to give in these big fights. I want those other belts and I’m willing to prove how far I’ll go to get them. I also want to thank my team. I couldn’t have done it without them. Ben Davison’s been getting a lot of stick recently, Lee Wylie, Barry Smith, I couldn’t have done it without them. These last three fights, the way we do things, I’ve only been at that gym 15 months and I’ve won a British title, a world title and I’ve defended it. When people win a world title they get an easy defense, a tick off fight to get through and I fought a two-time Olympian, world amateur gold medallist an unbeaten fighter – and Mick is a good fighter – so I want to thank them.

Conlan discusses the heartbreak of his first professional loss