By Barry Holbrook: WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) and challenger Mauricio Lara (25-2-1, 18 KOs) both weighed in at the limit for the weight class at 126 lbs on Friday for their massive headliner this Saturday night on February 18th at the 10,000-seat Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England.
An estimated 8,000 fans are expected to turn out to watch the 34-year-old Wood defend his title against the 24-year-old Lara, who is coming into Nottingham to not only defeat Leigh but stop in front of his hometown folk.
The oddsmakers have Lara as nearly a 3-to-1 favorite, which has promoter Eddie Hearn troubled because he believes Wood should be the favorite, given his time in grade, championship status, skills, and him fighting in front of his fans in Nottingham.
Unfortunately, Lara’s youth & massive welterweight-level power trumps the experience, skills, and hometown status of Wood. When a fighter possesses the kind of power that Lara has, it doesn’t matter if you’re fighting in your living room in front of your family.
You will get hurt, particularly if you keep getting up and are completely out of it and unable to defend yourself.
As Lara has repeatedly said, he’s coming to Nottingham to bring the war to Wood, and he plans on destroying him and taking his WBA 126-lb title back home to Mexico as a trophy of war. The WBA belt will be the scalp that Lara will be looking to take from Wood on Saturday.
Wood can win
“This is the biggest fight of his career. He has a big following and a big backing, with everyone in Nottingham wanting him to do well. It’s tough, this is a tough fight against Lara,” said Carl Froch to Matchroom Boxing about hometown fighter Leigh Wood in the title defense of his WBA featherweight strap against the favorite Mauricio Lara.
“Listen, Wood has all it takes to win this fight, and if he’s at his best,” continued Froch about his belief that Wood has it in him to defeat Lara. “I’m picking Leigh to win. I think it can even be a late stoppage like against [Michael] Conlan.
“He can win on points. He needs to be clever; he needs to be sharp, and he needs to stay switched on all the way through. But Lara has that ability to knock him out at any stage of the fight, which is the danger. But Wood is tough.
“He’s grown mentally from that last fight [against Conlan in March 2022], but there’s something in the air. I’m feeling it, and I think he can pull it off, and I think he can do it,” said Froch about Wood.
“I know he’s up for it, he’s excited, he’s trained hard, and he’s coming off the back of that injury [bicep],” Froch said about the 34-year-old Wood. “He’s got that sorted and is back in the gym and is chomping at the bit to get back in the ring and do the business, but he’s got his hands full.
Leigh has a lot to gain
“The win against [Michael] Conlan coming back from the brink of defeat in the final nine seconds of the last round, it was an amazing performance. He kept believing in himself all the way through. He kept working hard, punching away. He got the result; fair play to him, and what a win that was,” Froch said.
“That will make him grow mentally and make him a better fighter, a more well-rounded fighter,” Froch said about Wood. “If he goes into this fight believing in himself, he can do the business.
“I believe he does, and that would be a massive fight,” said Froch when asked if Wood deserves to fight Josh Warrington at the City Grounds stadium next if he comes out victorious against Mauricio Lara on Saturday night.
“It needs to be a big name. Josh Warrington would be the one that makes more sense because it’ll be a massive crowd, and we’ll love a domestic tear-up. But certainly, if you can beat Lara. What is Lara, 24 years old? He’s quite a big puncher,” Froch said.
Mauricio Lara should be unbeaten
“He [Lara] lost his first fight [against Julio Carabino by a four round split decision in 2015], which the Mexicans chucked him in there, chucked him straight into the deep end, and I watched him the other night, and he got stopped to the body [by Eliot Chavez in the first round in Lara’s thirteenth pro fight in May 2018],” said Froch. “He was just getting up, and the referee waved it off.
“To me, he’s [Lara] unbeaten, and he’s a big puncher, and he means business, and he’s coming to win, but he’s coming to Nottingham. Leigh Wood is from Nottingham, and I know what the feeling is when you’re at home when all your family and friends and all the people you went to school with are behind you, and you get in the ring like a man possessed.
“If Leigh Wood does that and just works from round one to round twelve if he doesn’t get caught by Lara. Even if he gets caught, we’ve seen him climb off the canvas. I just think this is a great fight, really exciting. I want Leigh Wood to win. If he does win, what’s the next level up from the sheriff? I’ll give him my sheriff’s badge. I don’t know what else I can give him.
“The City Ground, that’s a fight that I wanted; the Nottingham Forest City Ground would have been amazing. We offered Andre Ward, but he didn’t want to come. To be honest, I probably would have beaten him at Nottingham Forest. It would have been one hell of a fight, and I would have tried my hardest.
“With the atmosphere at the City Ground, I think it brings him to the next level. It brings the best out of you. If Leigh Wood can bring that fight to the City Ground, he thoroughly deserves it. If he wins this [Lara], this is a massive achievement if he wins this.
“If he does, it only has to be at the City Ground. Eddie Hearn needs to pull all stops out to get him [Wood] there,” said Froch.
