Wood Dominates Lara & Lopez KO’s Conlan

Last night the featherweight division was the star attraction with both the IBF and WBA titles on the line in two main events from the UK and Ireland featured on DAZN and ESPN+. Both fights contained interesting match ups and hard punchers who have been consistently putting on terrific fights. The Wood vs Lara fight was a rematch of their first fight earlier this year where Wood was leading on the scorecards before being dropped at the end of the seventh round and had the towel come in from Ben Davidson to call the fight. At the time the towel throw was seen as controversial as there were only six seconds left in the round and Wood was going to get a minute to recover. I had felt that he looked worse against Conlan when going down in that fight. This decision to throw the towel and live to fight another day proved to be the right one. Conlan the Irish star put everything he had into his KO loss to Wood last year and was on a two fight winning streak going into this title tilt with Luis Alberto Lopez. Lopez won the title by stunning Josh Warrington in his backyard by decision and was making his first title defense last night. Lopez had also defeated several good undefeated fighters in his climb and was a dangerous fight on paper for Conlan looking to get his title at home.

Leigh Wood reclaimed his WBA title in a dominant unanimous decision in a fight where Lara really was a dud. The commentary team spent time wondering about the weight cut and title stripping. Lara lost the title on Wednesday when at the check-in weigh-in he was too far from 126 lbs. and was deemed unsafe for making weight. Ultimately, Lara came in close to four pounds over the limit and the fight itself was marked by controversy. Wood’s team elected to go forward anyway despite giving up weight officially and the title was only at stake for him. Wood, incidentally looked like the bigger man leading me to wonder what their fight night weights were. Lara looked flat, it was hard to tell how much of this was Lara having an off night; or was Lara made to look that way by Wood. Lara hit the deck in the second round and was repeatedly hurt by straight right hands that chopped the Mexican fighter coming in. Wood used adept footwork to avoid exchanges and oftentimes Lara would fall in and slip over his own feet to struggle to land. A lot of Lara’s punches were arm punches as he could not get set to land effectively. Wood took the best Lara had to offer which as the fight wore on was maybe one hard left hook a round. I am still shocked how Spanish judge Jose Ignacio Martinez Antunez found four rounds to give Lara. It was not a great fight by any stretch of the imagination but Wood did what he needed to to win the title back and not risk being on his back taking a ten count. The options are plenty for the 34 year old Brit who has lots of good fighters in and around his division.

Luis Alberto Lopez lost the two opening rounds before taking control of the fight. Conlan was sweeping his left hand around the guard and catching Lopez early in the fight. Lopez would respond by strafing the guard with right crosses and left hooks and forcing Conlan back to the ropes. Both men could hurt each other with their punches. The fight was close but momentum was on Lopez’s side as he weathered the early storm and began putting his punches together and backing Conlan up. For as good of a boxer as Conlan is, he continues to get sucked into brawls and has a leakier defense than you would expect from an amateur stand out. With a little more than a minute left in the fifth round a short right uppercut chopped down Conlan who was waved off when the corner threw the towel in rather than let Conlan be counted out. Conlan was down and required oxygen after the fight but all appears to be well. Lopez has established himself as a threat in the division with back-to-back big wins. I hope to see a Wood fight.

Sadly South Africa’s Ludumo Lamati who competed on the co-main event of the Conlan-Lopez bout collapsed following a twelfth round TKO loss. He was promptly rushed to the hospital and treated. So far the news has been good with Michael Benson Tweeting that his vital signs are all stable and to my knowledge has not been put in a medically induced coma or any of the other procedures that accompany a brain injury.

On a separate card Lawrence Okolie was relieved of his WBO Cruiserweight belt against Chris Billam-Smith. Okolie was down three times and had two points deducted for holding and still managed to have a judge see it as even. SB Nation had it by a point for Smith and dubbed it as one of the wildest fights in recent years. I will have to check this one out when I get the chance.