Leigh Wood takes on Mauricio Lara in a world title featherweight contest this weekend. On paper, this fight is a truly compelling one and could be viewed as a 50/50 fight, despite how the odds have it favoring Lara to win convincingly. Can Wood make a second successful defense of his world crown? Can Lara secure a fourth straight knockout? We’ll find out on Saturday.

WBA-Super World Featherweight Champion Leigh Wood (28-2,16 KO’s) will fight for the first time in 2023. On paper, this fight against Mauricio Lara could prove to be the toughest of his career. Both men are big punchers and this fight is almost a guarantee as you can get to not reaching the final bell. 

Leigh Wood claimed his WBA World Featherweight Title back in July 2021 with a sensational performance against Can Xu. Since then, Wood has had just one fight which many pundits had as fight of the year against Michael Conlan. A slight underdog, he took it to Conlan while getting it back, before ultimately knocking Conlan out. We predicted an upset victory here. Now he heads into another fight of the year type of contest.

Mauricio Lara (25-2-1, 18 KO’s) is well known to UK fight fans as he upset Josh Warrington the first defeat of his career. Lara was an unknown quantity coming over from Mexico back in 2021, but shot to world level with a completely one-sided pummelling of Warrington. 

These two men are widely regarded as two of the biggest punchers in the 126-pound division which makes for an eye-catching fight this weekend.

Let’s see where the value is in this fight? Leigh Wood comes into this fight as a 2-1 underdog at +210. Lara is priced at -275.

Despite being priced as the underdog for this fight i am going to stick with my underdog pick last year. 

Lara is a big puncher and goes for the knockout every time, but has a poor defense which I can see Wood countering and getting the better in exchanges.  Lara isn’t one to bring his hands back to block punches often and just like Wood did with Conlan in his last fight, I can see him grinding this one out and securing another massive win.

Mauricio can be very rash and reckless. He throws wild punches and leaves his chin in the air a lot, which I can see Leigh Wood pouncing on.

This fight is almost certain to end in a stoppage or knockout but can it last 6 rounds? I think both men are durable enough to go 6. Wood is fighting at home in Nottingham, the crowd will be certainly pushing him forward. Maybe i am crazy but just like i did with the Conlan fight, I am going all in with Wood. I like Wood to win by stoppage in over 6 rounds.