WBA Featherweight Belt: Leigh Wood, 31, was in the lead according to all three judges’ scores in a competitive fight at the Motorpoint Arena, but a devastating left hook knocked him out, and his trainer Ben Davison gave up.
In Nottingham, Mexico’s Mauricio Lara knocked out WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood in the seventh round.
In a dramatic fight at the Motorpoint Arena, Wood, 31, had a lead on all three judges’ scorecards. But, he was dropped by a devastating left hook, and his trainer Ben Davison decided to call it a night.
After an unintentional head-to-head collision at the conclusion of the first round, Wood suffered a severe cut near his left eye but was still boxing brilliantly when the 24-year-old Lara struck for the knockout.
In the second round, Lara delivered a powerful right hook that buckled Woods’ legs, but the champion came back in the third round with several powerful blows of his own.
Early in the fourth, the Mexican’s right-left combination hurt Wood once more, but once more the Englishman dug deep to end the round brilliantly.
In the fifth round, Lara took a body shot that clearly wounded her, and in the sixth round, Wood delivered a big right cross that sent Lara staggering on the ropes.
Yet Lara, who previously suffered a first-career loss to former IBF featherweight world champion Josh Warrington, connected with a powerful left hook just as the enthusiastic crowd felt Wood was getting the better of a dangerous opponent.
Wood managed to beat the count but was obviously in trouble, and his corner gave up.
In 2021, he defeated China’s Xu Can in the last round to win the belt. In one of the best fights of 2018, he did the same thing against Michael Conlan.
Wood has the option of using the rematch provision in his contract in order to recover from this defeat.
Afterwards, he remarked, “I just want to say thanks to everyone for supporting me and I’ll be back.”
“I might have gone on because I’m a warrior, but instead, I simply want to wish Mauricio Lara luck.”
For boxing championship, boxing live score, boxing tournament, WBA Featherweight Belt, boxing ring, boxing match today, latest boxing news, live boxing tournament, live boxing court, boxing court, boxing match today live and other boxing news follow Livematchupdates.com.
