Lara KO's Wood In Title Fight - the Nottingham Sport

What next for Nottingham’s own, ‘Leighthal’ Leigh Wood?

Saturday night’s defeat to world title challenger, Mauricio Lara, he now the WBA World featherweight champion, was the third of Wood’s career, after trainer, Ben Davison, threw in the towel in the closing seconds of the seventh round.

It did look, in the first half of the contest, as though Wood (26-3; 16) would knock up another defence of the world title, even though the home favourite had to recover from an early knockdown.

Lara (26-2-1; 19) though continued to knock on Wood’s door; a clash of heads opening a cut above Wood’s left eye in the opening round, the Nottingham fighter though taking judge’s scorecards for the majority.

However, the Mexican had worked out enough in the opening exchanges of the contest, to push through in the second half of the bout.

Granted, Wood had control, even in that final, seventh round, and it only takes one lapse, one punch, to change matters, and that is what happened here.

The seventh round finally became Wood’s undoing, and Lara’s crowning, when the rising challenger caught the falling champion with a left-hook, to Wood’s right, and he was down – but not out.

Beating official Michael Alexander’s count, it was looking like the contest was about to continue, until the towel came over Wood’s shoulder, Davison, Wood’s trainer, making the hard decision to pull the home favourite, out, before any further damage is done.

Could Wood have survived the round and pushed on? We’ll never know, however, there was only seconds left in the seventh, and it’s that which upset another, former world champion, Tony Bellew, who let loose in the post-fight run-down saying:

“(Ben) Davison knew what he was getting into when he took that fight, and you’ve got to let him carry on.

“He’s (Wood) not completely gone, and look at his reaction when he sees that towel, he turns to Ben and says ‘No, No, No….’

“You know he (Wood) was going to get hurt (tonight) at some point and you’ve put him in there so you’ve got to let him ride it out.

“He was hurt, worse in my opinion, against Michael Conlan (TKO12, March ’23), and I said this before to Josh (Warrington) but Josh said he’s a different puncher to Michael Conlan, which I fully agree with, but his head was getting rocked from side-to-side, against Michael Conlan and Ben was happy to let it ride.

“Now, three, four, five, six punch combinations Michael Conlan was throwing at times, and Leigh was taking them, and Ben didn’t throw it in; I think you’ve just get to let him see it out.”

As for Wood himself, in the ring after the loss, he was few of words, but to the point about the loss, stating that:

“Congratulations to Mauricio Lara, he’s a great fighter.

“I made a mistake, and I paid for it.”

Then, when asked if he wanted it again, Wood promptly answered, with one word: “Absolutely.”

The undercard, championship results, saw success for two, undefeated fighters, Ireland’s Gary Cully (16-0; 10), defeat Puerto Rican, Wilfredo Flores, TKO2, for the vacant, WBA Intercontinental lightweight, and Sheffield’s Dalton Smith (14-0; 10) saw off southerner, Billy Allington, via unanimous decision, for the British super lightweight.

Wood though, has come through three, extremely tough contests, in quick succession – Can Xu, Michael Conlan, and Mauricio Lara – a break would be well-deserved for sure.

But now, the burning question remains, what next for Leigh Wood? Time will tell….