Reigning WBA Featherweight Champion Nottingham's Leigh Wood found the perfect shot - a right hand to brutally knockout Belfast's Michael Conlan yesterday on DAZN. Wood was behind on the cards (two of which had him down by 1, the other by 3) and needed something spectacular in the 12th round and he produced just that in front of the 9000 fans in the Nottingham Arena.
Wood started the fight well in the first round but towards the last 30 seconds was caught with a lopping overhand left from Conlan that resulted in a heavy knockdown. It did look like lights out for a moment and continued that way for the second round but Wood found the championship heart to come back into the fight after 3. After the 5th round, Conlan slowed down and there wasn't much in it but Conlan had amassed a strong lead early.
Wood started to build on his success in the 8th and 9th rounds with big eye-catching flurries. The breakthrough was in the 11th when Wood seemingly lost the first 2 minutes of the round but produced a left-hand 'flash knockdown' late to not only steal the round but win it by 10-8 and be very much in the fight heading into the last.
In the 12th, Wood backed Conlan up like he'd done often in the fight and found the perfect right hand that knocked Conlanunconscious standing and followed it up with a right uppercut that knocked him out of the ring. Conlan did later regain consciousness in hospital and is now stable,, everyone in the boxing world has him in their thoughts.
What's Next for Leigh Wood?
On March 26 also on DAZN at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, Josh Warrington will face Spain's Kiko Martinez for the IBF Featherweight Championship. Both Leigh Wood and Josh Warrington are big draws and if they both win their next fights then the next logical fight would be a WBA/IBF unification between the pair either at Elland Road in Leeds or The City Ground in Nottingham - both of which could take 25,000+ which would be required for a fight of this magnitude.
Obviously, there are several problems before this can come to fruition. First of all, Warrington needs to repeat his 2017 victory over Martinez, the WBA needs to finally do the right thing and strip 3-year 126-Pound inactive Leo Santa Cruz and the IBF Mandatory: an unheralded Latin American boxer named Luis Lopez needs to accept step-a-side or the IBF need to grant a unification.
By @EverythingBoxi2 on Twitter -Everything Boxing - Darshan Desai
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