By: Sean Crose
“Mauricio Lara has lost her World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight belt after failing to gain weight today. However, Leigh Wood will be able to choose the title.” The WBA said so on Friday after Lara appeared to be nearly 4 pounds overweight ahead of a game against Leigh Wood this Saturday at Manchester, England’s AO Arena. The development will certainly take away some of the atmosphere of the highly-anticipated rematch, but it’s about Lara. Don’t expect Lara’s weight – or anything else for that matter – to keep Wood from going bust when he comes face to face with the man who stripped him of his WBA featherweight belt last winter.
Wood told the media: “I’m ready to get this belt back and look great doing it. “Without a doubt, I’m not saying this will be an easy fight, because it may not be an easy fight, but I’m prepared for whatever he brings. arrive. The first round was tough because we didn’t have his style compared to mine to look at, now we have that information and we know what he does when I do some of the most. determined.” In fact, Wood looked impressive the first time he faced Lara… that was until Lara put an exclamation point on everything thanks to a brilliant left hook.
“Whatever happens on Saturday night, I’ll go away with a win,” Wood said. “This is what makes me strive for it, I can’t lose. I can’t afford to lose. That could be the end of the road for me. It’s a long way back. That’s why I didn’t think about losing, I did everything I could to win. I am confident in victory. I know what I need to do to win. I know what I cannot afford to do.”
However, it is unusual to have a rematch of this type less than three months after the first one ended. “It was a quick change,” Wood admitted, “but it was in my favor. If you told me when I won the World Title, ‘yes, in 13 weeks you’ll be back, you need to go back to the gym’, I’d say, ‘woah Eddie come on, let me celebration’. That’s why I believe it’s one of the benefits for me. I immediately returned to training.”
With things settled, Leigh is now just a few hours away from winning the WBA belt again. All he has to do is defeat Lara first. However, that would be easier said than done.
