On Saturday night in Manchester, featherweights Mauricio Lara and Leigh Wood will meet in a rematch that has come around pretty fast. It was just three months ago when Lara ripped Wood’s WBA title from him, this in front of the defending champion’s home crowd in Nottingham; Mexico’s Lara again showing how he is fully deserving of the tag “danger man.”
Now, in what will be a repeat or revenge fight, Lara, 26-2-1(19) is saying he will try his best to get Wood out of there even quicker this time – Lara having stopped Wood, 26-3(16) in the seventh round in the first fight. Wood deserves a whole lot of credit for agreeing to fight Lara again, and for doing it so quickly. But is Wood making a mistake? Lara, who spoke with RingTV.com, sure thinks so.
“It is gonna be a good fight,” Lara said to The Bible of Boxing. “We know what [Wood] is capable of. It was a great experience but this rematch will be different because I have prepared myself better than ever and it will show May 27th. I’ll try to KO him faster this time.”
What Time Is The Lara vs. Wood II Fight?
- Date : Saturday, May 27
- Time : 7 p.m. GMT / 2 p.m. ET
- Main event ringwalks (approx): 10:00 p.m. GMT / 5:00 p.m. ET
- The fight will take place at the AO Arena in Manchester, England
- The event is set to get underway at 7 p.m. GMT / 2 p.m. ET with the main event ringwalks scheduled for 10:00 p.m. GMT / 5:00 p.m. ET.
- The card will stream live on DAZN in over 200 countries across the globe
Lara arrived in the UK today and he said in a message to Wood how he will not take away his title, the one he worked so hard to win – “he is not going to take that away from me,” Lara stated.
This does look like a tough assignment for Wood, who is no spring chicken at age 34, to Lara’s 25. In the first fight, Wood suffered a cut early on, this from a clash of heads. That obviously didn’t help Wood, but he was boxing well until he got caught, and got caught hard, in the fateful seventh round. Wood went down heavily yet he did beat the count, only for his team to throw in the towel. The thing we have to ask going into the rematch is, can Wood avoid Lara’s crunching power for all 12 rounds? Can Wood box what will have to be an almost perfect fight this time?
This is, to repeat, no easy assignment. Far from it.
Pick: It has to be Lara again, by another mid-rounds stoppage.
LARA – WOOD 2 FIGHT CARD
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- Mauricio Lara vs. Leigh Wood 2; For Lara’s WBA world featherweight title
- Jack Catterall vs. Darragh Foley
- Terri Harper vs. Ivana Habazin for WBA women’s super-welterweight title
- Danny Ball vs. Jamie Robinson for English welterweight title
- Aqib Fiaz vs. Costin Ion
- Campbell Hatton vs. Michal Bulak