Leigh Wood will defend the WBA “regular” featherweight against Mauricio Lara on Sept. 24 (DAZN) at Motorpoint Arena in Wood’s hometown of Nottingham, England, Matchroom Boxing announced.
The fight will take place because WBA president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza went back on his word. As part of it’s title reduction policy that has gone on for more than a year, the WBA ordered featherweight “super” titlist Leo Santa Cruz and Wood to meet in a mandatory fight earlier this year. The sides agreed to negotiate and then Santa Cruz’s team sought an exception for him to instead face Rey Vargas in an all-Premier Boxing Champions unification fight.
The WBA denied the request and insisted on Santa Cruz-Wood, and scheduled a purse bid. The camps then told the WBA that they had made a deal and asked for the purse bid to be canceled with a fight date and venue forthcoming.
Then, suddenly this week, the WBA reversed course and approved Santa Cruz-Vargas and Wood-Lara, again breaking its rules because Lara is not ranked by the WBA.
The fight will be Wood’s second defense and first since his ultra dramatic 12th-round comeback knockout of Michael Conlan, whom he ejected from ring and onto the arena floor with the final flurry on March 12 at the same arena.
Wood (26-2, 16 KOs), 34, was down in the first round, dropped Conlan in the 11th and was trailing on all three scorecards in the final round before scoring the knockout to culminate a fight of the year contender.
“I maybe have a handful of fights left and I want them to be my biggest,” Wood said. “I want to be tested. I’m filling arenas now and I want to keep that momentum going. Every fight should be a step forward, not backwards. Mauricio Lara is dangerous but high risk, high reward, I’m confident I can do what Josh Warrington couldn’t do and get the job done.”
Lara (24-2-1, 17 KOs), 24, of Mexico, came out of obscurity in February 2021 when he traveled to England and shockingly dominated and knocked out two-time featherweight titlist Josh Warrington in the ninth round of a massive upset. They fought to a second-round technical draw in a rematch later in 2021 that ended when Lara was cut over his left eye by an accidental head butt and unable to continue. He has won his only fight since via third-round knockout of Emilio Sanchez on March 5.
“This is the opportunity that I have worked so hard for and I am not going to miss it,” Lara said. “I am aware that Leigh Wood is a great fighter, but no one is going to take away the possibility of me becoming a world champion. I'm going to England for the third time and it's like I’m fighting at home.”
The card will also include:
- Lightweight Maxi Hughes (25-5-2, 5 KOs), 32, against former featherweight titlist Kid Galahad (28-2, 17 KOs), 32, in an all-British 12-rounder. Galahad is moving up two divisions and will be fighting for the first time since losing his featherweight title in his first defense by sixth-round upset knockout to Kiko Martinez in November.
- Hannah Rankin (12-5, 3 KOs), 32, of Scotland, will defend her WBA junior middleweight women’s title against former junior lightweight titlist Terri Harper (12-1-1, 6 KOs), 25, of England, who had her last fight at lightweight but is moving up three divisions, from 135 to 154 pounds.
...the WBA is a horrible sanctioning body