Fight Week: Leigh Wood vs. Mauricio Lara highlights busy weekend

FIGHT WEEK

Featherweight beltholder Leigh Wood, coming off his sensational KO of Michael Conlan, will defend against Maurico Lara on Saturday in England.

Also on the card: Misael Lopez vs. Edward Vazquez, junior lightweights
Prediction: Holmes UD
Background: Two American junior middleweight prospects will risk their perfect records against one another in a main event on “ShoBox: The New Generation”. Holmes, a 2016 Olympic Alternate, is coming off a unanimous decision over Vernon Brown in his first 10-rounder on ShoBox last March. The product of Flint, Michigan, is an unusually tall (6-foot-2) southpaw with excellent skills that were honed during his successful amateur career, which is why he appears to have a high ceiling. The aggressive Villarreal last fought in July, when he stopped LeShawn Rodriguez in six rounds. It was the Bronx native’s fifth consecutive knockout. He’s much shorter than Holmes (5-foot-8) but he also had a good amateur career, meaning he has a solid skill set to go with his punching power.

Also on the card: Dalton Smith vs. Billy Allington, junior welterweights; Gary Cully vs. Wilfredo Flores, lightweights; Cheavon Clarke vs. Dec Spelman, cruiserweights; Gamal Yafai vs. Diego Alberto Ruiz, junior featherweights
Prediction: Lara KO 9
Background: One of the hottest fighters from the U.K. will face a Mexican brawler who has a history of spoiling the plans of Britons. Wood is coming off the 2022 Fight of the Year, in which he got up from a first round knockdown to knock challenger Michael Conlan through the ropes and out in the final round last March. The boxer-puncher, who will be fighting in his hometown, has won three consecutive fights since he lost a majority decision to James Dickens in 2020. That includes a 12^th-round stoppage of Can Xu to win his belt in 2021. Lara, a 24-year-old from Mexico City, stunned U.K. fans when he knocked out then-unbeaten and rising star Josh Warrington in the ninth round in London in 2021. The rematch later that year ended in a two-round technical draw after Lara suffered a cut and couldn’t continue. Lara then knocked out both Emilio Sanchez and Jose Sammartin in three rounds to earn another shot at a top British fighter.

Also on the card: Shane Mosley Jr. vs. Mario Lozano, super middleweights
Prediction: Hovhannisyan KO 10
Background: Junior featherweight contenders Nery and Hovhannisyan bring offense-minded attitudes and impressive punching power into this main event. Nery, a former two-division titleholder from Mexico, is still rebuilding after a rough stretch in 2021 and last year, when he was stopped by a bigger, stronger Brandon Figueroa in seven rounds in a 122-pound title-unification bout and then defeated Carlos Castro by an unconvincing split decision. He’s coming off a third-round knockout of less threatening David Carmona in a 130-pound, stay-busy fight last October. Hovhannisyan, a Los Angeles-based Armenian, has won seven consecutive fights since he lost a unanimous decision to then-122-pound titleholder Rey Vargas in 2018 and has rarely failed to entertain the fans. He last fought in April of last year, when he knocked out Dagoberto Aguero in two rounds on the Ryan Garcia-Emmanuel Tagoe card.

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

THURSDAY

SATURDAY

Felix Sturm vs. Sukru Altay, super middleweights, Stuttgart, Germany (DAZN).
Mike Ohan Jr. vs. Daniel Sostre, welterweights, Melrose, Massachusetts (BXNGTV).

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