Josh Warrington Targets Leigh Wood vs Lara Winner, Backs Brit To Be Clever Enough

In a reschedule of their highly-anticipated showdown, Britain’s Leigh Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) will defend his WBA world Featherweight championship against Mexican dangerman Mauricio Lara (25-2-1, 18 KOs) this Saturday, February 18 in what will be a sell-out 9,000 crowd at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England live on DAZN.

Lara produced one of the biggest upsets in a British ring when he stopped Josh Warrington in 2021, whilst Wood finished Belfast’s Michael Conlan in the twelfth round of their 2022 fight of the year contender where the man from Nottingham came off the floor in R1 to knock Conlan out in the closing stages of their thrilling encounter.

Wood vs Lara once again pits Britain against Mexico in a battle of elite featherweights. Watching both men fight, the experts have a consensus that this can be nothing short of a fight-of-the-year contender which could end in a vicious knockout. As a boxing fan, this is a fight which you cannot afford to miss.

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Both Wood and Lara have commented on facing Warrington should they emerge victorious on Saturday night. The Leeds warrior gave his thoughts on the matchup and facing the winner last week to the VIP Boxing YouTube channel.

The former IBF champion backed his domestic rival Leigh Wood to beat Mauricio Lara this Saturday.

“I feel that we’ve all seen a fair bit of Mauricio Lara now. We know what his strengths are, and we know what his weaknesses are. I think Ben Davison and Leigh Wood are clever enough to come up with a game plan to smooth over the first 4 rounds and probably get to him late.”

Wood vs Lara Date, UK Time, TV Channel, Tickets

Warrington believes that Lara no longer has that ‘unknown factor’ about him and now when you face him, you know exactly what you’re in for. He believes a smart strategist like Davison and an experienced boxer like Wood will be able to come up with and implement a game plan to beat the dangerous Mexican.

Warrington, however, would prefer his conqueror Lara to beat Wood. “I would like Lara to win and I told Leigh Wood that last week when I was on the pitch” (Nottingham Forrest vs Leeds United game). Warrington wants to avenge his defeat to Lara and Lopez by the end of his career and since he is likely to face the winner of Wood Lara, he would prefer for Lara to win

Should the Brit win, Wood vs Warrington is a major domestic fight at the City Ground and is likely the preferred option for fight fans. But if it’s Mexico over Britain again, then it’s the Lara Warrington trilogy fight and there can be no doubt that there’s unfinished business and bad blood after the last 18 months.

By Darshan Desai

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