Via Charles Brun: WBA ‘regular’ featherweight champions Leigh Wood and Mauricio Lara will not be rescheduled. The two were supposed to fight, but Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) suffered a biceps injury, which wiped out the competition.
Instead of Wood facing dangerous 24-year-old Lara (24-2-1, 17 KOs) and potentially losing, he’ll face WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz. Perhaps, Santa Cruz vs. Wood will take place in the United States, not the UK.
Santa Cruz, 34, will be the A-side in the fight against Wood, so it makes sense for the competition to be in the US The last thing Santa Cruz needs/want is to travel to the UK and find himself the possibility of losing ends a decision as controversial as in his first fight against Carl Frampton in 2016.
That fight will be tough for Wood just like Lara, but payday will be better. If Wood loses, he can also get as much money as possible against Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs).
Santa Cruz was scheduled to take on WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas to unify at 126, but that bout won’t happen, according to @ChavaESPN.
It’s not a huge shock that Leigh Wood, 34, is not going to postpone the fight with Mauricio Lara because it would be a bad match for him. Lara is younger and stronger and can easily defeat Wood.
Unless Wood chooses to come out of the fight the way some boxing fans feel Josh Warrington did by headbutting Lara repeatedly, he will be completely overwhelmed by the Mexican knockout.
Wood struggled to beat Michael Conlan in his final game in February. Conlan surprisingly dominated Wood for the first ten rounds. If it weren’t for Conlan’s ecstasy in the championship rounds, he would have beaten Wood in that match.
Santa Cruz has only fought once in the past two years, defeating Keenan Carbajal. He was eliminated in the sixth round by Gevonta ‘Tank’ Davis earlier. Assuming Santa Cruz’s chin remains intact after his loss to Tank Davis, he should have no trouble beating Wood. It’s a mismatch if the Santa Cruz is still firing on all eight cylinders.
