Eddie Hearn says Leigh Wood will make the decision soon whether to use his rematch clause to force a second fight against Mauricio Lara after being dethroned by him in a seventh round TKO on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England.
Hearn predicts that Wood (26-3, 16 KOs) is going to be upset when he looks at the scorecards and sees that he was ahead of Lara (26-2-1, 19 KOs), heading toward victory at the time the contest was halted in the seventh round by his trainer Ben Davison.
By the way, Hearn agrees with Davison’s decision to stop the fight because Wood was out on his feet and would have been taken out right away by Lara after he’d been poleaxed by him in the seventh round by a tremendous left hook to the head.
Wood has big decision to make
“Leigh Wood is going to be very frustrated because he was up on the scorecards by three rounds or two rounds, and was on the way to a massive victory,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing.
“I was actually thinking a few seconds before the knockdown, ‘This is a great performance by a British fighter.’ The one thing that nobody picked was Leigh Wood on points, and I thought this could be the way the fight is going.
“He’ll feel like he can beat Mauricio Lara. The decision now lies with Leigh Wood. Does he want to get back in fairly soon, which will mean getting back in camp fairly soon and rematch Mauricio Lara or does he let Josh Warrington fight Mauricio Lara, and he’s contracted to fight the winner? That’s how that would play out.
Mauricio Lara a “borderline King”
“It’s a tremendous fight all the way around. Mauricio Lara is a 24-year-old Mexican world champion who has come over to the UK and beat Josh Warrington in Leeds and also Leigh Wood in Nottingham. He’s the #1 featherweight in the world. It’s an unbelievable story, and he’s exciting to watch and you’re going to see him again. You’re going to see him in the summer.
“He’s going to be borderline king and borderline royalty in Mexico tonight, and obviously, that could mean that he could have a big fight in America as well,” said Hearn about Mauricio Lara.
“He has a huge profile here, there’s big money and big fights for him here, and we got two featherweights [Wood & Warrington] that want a crack,” said Hearn.