Featherweight titleholder Leigh Wood, after Michael Conlan’s sensational KO, will face Maurico Lara on Saturday in the UK.
LEIGH WOOD (26-2, 16 KOS)
WITH. MAURICIO LARA (25-2-1, 18 KOS)
- Day: Saturday, February 18
- Time: 2pm ET / 11am PT (7pm UK time) (main event follows)
- Where: Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham, England
- television/stream: DAZN
- Assignment: Featherweight (126 pounds)
- threatened: Wood’s WBA title
- Pound-for-pound ratings: Do not have
- the odds: Wood 2-1 favorite (multi-store average)
- Also on the card: Dalton Smith vs Billy Allington, junior welterweight; Gary Cully vs. Wilfredo Flores, lightweight; Cheavon Clarke vs Dec Spelman, cruiser class; Gamal Yafai vs Diego Alberto Ruiz, junior featherweight
- Guess: Lara KO 9
- Background: One of the hottest boxers from the UK will face off against a Mexican boxer with a history of foiling the British plans. Wood is coming to Battle of the Year 2022, in which he gets up from a knockdown in the first round to knock out rival Michael Conlan over the rope and out in the final round last March. The boxer, who will fight at home, has won three straight fights since he lost to James Dickens by majority decision in 2020. That number includes 12.order-Can Xu stops in the ring to win the title in 2021. Lara, 24 from Mexico City, stunned UK fans when he take down then-rising star Josh Warrington in the ninth round in London in 2021. The rematch later that year ended in two halves technical drawing after Lara cut her arm and couldn’t continue. Lara then knocked out both Emilio Sanchez and Jose Sammartin in three rounds for another shot at Britain’s top boxer.
