[1] After the loss to McDonnell, Wood had a comeback fight against Martin Mubiru and put in good performance and earned a 3rd-round TKO.
[2] Then after 3 more fights and 3 more wins at featherweight, he stepped up in class to box the man who took his former foe to a draw Josh Wale in a British title eliminator.
[citation needed] Wood came out in the first round pot shooting and making Glover miss before landing some big punches before the bell.
[8] Wood made his first WBO European title defence against Jazza Dickens in The Golden Contract featherweight tournament semifinals on 21 February 2020.
[11] Wood outboxed the champion during periods of the fight, and prevailed with an upset victory via twelfth-round technical knockout.
[17] On 6 April 2022, WBA formally ordered their "Super" champion Leo Santa Cruz to face Wood in a mandatory title defence.
Santa Cruz requested an exemption from his mandatory defence to face the WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas instead, which was denied by the sanctioning body.
[24] Wood withdrew from the fight ten days before it was supposed to take place, due to a torn biceps suffered in sparring.
[27] As the bout with Santa Cruz fell through, Wood was once again booked to make his first featherweight title defence against Mauricio Lara.
Although he was able to rise from the canvas in time to beat the ten count, his trainer Ben Davison decided to throw in the towel six seconds before the end of the round.
[30] Lara missed weight by 3.8 lbs at the official weigh-ins and was stripped of the belt, leaving only Wood eligible to win the vacant championship.
[33] Exactly two months later however, the sanctioning body approved Wood's request to make a voluntary title defense against the former two-time IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington, with the stipulation that the winner face Kholmatov within 120 days of their fight taking place.