A critical look at the past week in boxing
GOOD
Knockouts like the one Leigh Wood delivered on Saturday stay with us for the rest our lives.
No, his 12th-round stoppage of two-time Olympian Michael Conlan doesn’t rise to the level of George Foreman’s knockout of Michael Moorer to complete his remarkable comeback or even Carl Froch’s one-punch KO of George Groves before 80,000 at Wembley Stadium.
Those fights were far more significant than the Wood-Conlan fight, with only a secondary title at stake.
Could it have been more dramatic, though?
Wood seemed to be well behind on the scorecards with seconds to go in Round 11, when the fight took a dramatic turn. That’s when Conlan went down from what appeared to be a grazing punch, which gave Wood a 10-8 round and opened the door to a remarkable comeback.
That was nothing compared to what was to come. Halfway through the final round Wood unloaded a flurry of hard punches, one of which hurt Conlan and sent him crashing through the ropes and onto Nottingham Arena floor.
The spectators, Wood’s hometown fans, went nuts. And I know I wasn’t the only one watching on television who thought, “Did that just happen?”
It did. Wood’s perseverance allowed him to turn what was shaping up to the be a disappointing performance into one of the most-memorable stoppages in recent British boxing history, a distinction he will always have.
And, of course, it will lead to bigger fights in the immediate future. Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) sits directly below respected WBA featherweight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz, who Wood declared he would like to face in his next outing.
I don’t see him beating a fighter of Santa Cruz’s caliber, assuming the Mexican is near his best. However, I didn’t see Wood beating the talented Conlan, either.
A man who believes in himself and never stops trying can do special things. Wood reminded us of that once again.
BAD
Wood didn’t need a knockout to avoid defeat against Conlan, as it turned out.
Two of the three official judges had Conlan leading 104-103 after 11 rounds, meaning Wood would’ve walked away with a draw had he won the 12th round on those cards instead of ending matters by knockout.
That’s not how I saw the fight. I scored it 106-102 for Conlan going into the 12th and final round, eight rounds to three. From my perspective, all the two-time Olympian had to do to complete an excellent performance was remain on his feet until the final bell.
That’s how good Conlan was, in my opinion. I thought he frustrated Wood most of the fight, couldn’t miss with his overhand left and did a good job avoiding Wood’s biggest shots.
To me, the product of Belfast looked like the elite fighter many believed he would become.
And then, in a wild moment halfway through the final round, all of the above because irrelevant when Conlan was sent through the ropes and he was unable to continue.
He would’ve been in position to fight for a major 126-pound title had he won. Now his future seems sadly uncertain.
How does one bounce back from that?
Of course, the ability is there. We saw it throughout the fight. The question now is whether he has the mental toughness to put such a devastating setback behind him, to accept his unfortunate fate as “just a part of boxing.”
We won’t know the answer to that question until Conlan gets back into the ring with a capable opponent.
WORSE
Don’t be shocked if Canelo Alvarez doesn’t challenge light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol of Russia on May 7 in Las Vegas as planned.
Former heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko has called on the American boxing community to prevent Bivol from competing, following the lead of other sports that have banned Russian athletes as a way of pressuring Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine.
And it seems pressure might be building for Alvarez to find another opponent. For example, the British Boxing Board of Control announced a few days ago that it would not allow Russian boxers to compete in the U.K.
The anticipating light heavyweight title-unification bout between Russian Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr. could also be in jeopardy, although promoter Bob Arum said that situation is different from Alvarez-Bivol because Beterbiev is a Canadian citizen.
Bivol was born in Kyrgyzstan but moved with his family to Russia as a child and still resides there.
I believe that both of those fights will happen. Boxing has often gone its own way, for better or worse. Alvarez wants Bivol. And promoter Eddie Hearn and DAZN stand to make a lot of money from that bout and a third meeting between Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin in September as part of a two-fight deal.
That’s powerful motivation for Hearn and Co. to ignore calls to jettison Bivol.
If Bivol ends up being pulled? Alvarez has plenty of options. He could fight David Benavidez or Jermall Charlo (whose negotiations to fight Jaime Munguia reportedly have collapsed) in May and stay with Triple-G for September.
Then he could return to Bivol next year, assuming the political climate will be different by then.