The pain of defeat never gets easier, but Leigh Wood has long learnt to use setbacks in the ring as fuel to come again.
It has been three months since Wood (26-3-0) succumbed to the third loss of his career, when Mexican firecracker Mauricio Lara (26-2-1) brutally knocked him out in front of his home fans at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena.
Somehow, the WBA featherweight champion admirably rose to his feet after a chopping left hook sent him sprawling to the canvas. He was even ready to continue.
Luckily – and rightly – trainer Ben Davison threw in the towel to save him of any unneccessary punishment and prove the old adage that a fighter sometimes needs saving from themselves indeed remains true.
‘Yeah for sure,’ Wood says when asked if he understands Davison’s call looking back. ‘He’s here to look after me and boxer’s need saving from themselves sometimes. He knew we had the rematch clause and he didn’t want to find out what was gonna happen after that.
Leigh Wood is looking to reclaim the WBA featherweight title against Mauricio Lara on Saturday night
![Wood (R) will be looking to bounce back from the third loss of his professional boxing career](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/27/10/71475159-12124777-image-a-16_1685179935966.jpg)
Wood (R) will be looking to bounce back from the third loss of his professional boxing career
‘[Lara] could have blown himself out trying to knock me out and I could have knocked him out. He could have come out and pummeled me and punched my head in and I could have got hurt. He wasn’t willing to find out when I was in that state and we had the rematch clause.
‘It was the right call, and Saturday night I’m going to put things right and it will make a lot more sense to people.’
There was doubt the bout would even go ahead after Lara failed to make the weight on the eve of his fight with Woods, resulting in the Mexican being stripped of the title following orders by British Board of Control.
Wood had the option of accepting the 3.8 lbs weight disadvantage and going into the ring at the Manchester Arena in hope of a victory which would still see him crowned as a world champion for a second time.
Enough time has passed for Wood to have brushed aside his third career loss and begin plotting his redemption. On the eve of Saturday’s rematch, he is back into the very same unfazed, ruthless mindset which propelled him from domestic-level fighter to world champion in the space of three years.
After losing his 12th and 25th professional contests, this is not the 34-year-old’s first rodeo when it comes to bouncing back from a defeat. And experience has taught him to not let the disappointment cloud him for too long.
‘It’s hard, it’s very hard,’ he admits. ‘The first time I got beat I was pretty much in depression, I put a lot of weight on. From what I weighed in at, I think I put about three-and-a-half stone on. I didn’t want to be around anyone and I didn’t know how to deal with it.
‘But then I realised it ignited a fire in myself and I went away, improved, got better and came back a better fighter. I looked at why I got beat and things around it. Same the second time, straight away I knew I’ve been here before, and it hurts more than anything you can put yourself through in training. It hurts so much. But again I used it as fuel to improve and come back better.
![Mexican fighter Lara has been stripped of the title after failing to make weight on Friday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/27/10/71451075-12124777-Mauricio_Lara_has_been_stripped_of_his_featherweight_title_after-a-15_1685179751995.jpg)
Mexican fighter Lara has been stripped of the title after failing to make weight on Friday
![Lara won the first bout via a seventh round to claim the WBA featherweight title](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/27/10/67838009-12124777-Mexico_s_Mauricio_Lara_won_the_first_bout_via_a_seventh_round_to-a-11_1685179437148.jpg)
Lara won the first bout via a seventh round to claim the WBA featherweight title
‘The same this time. With the fast turnaround I want to get back in there, I could’ve got back in there the next day and put things right. That’s how I felt, honestly.
‘But I’ve come away and looked at what happened and why it happened, how I could have prevented it, and to come back and put it right.’
Unlike when he previously came unstuck against Britain’s Gavin McDonnell and Jazza Dickens, Wood is staring an even more perilous redemption missing in the face this weekend. Lara, a ferocious slugger capable of ending a fight at the click of his fingers, is cut from a different cloth and may just be the best 126lbs fighter on the planet.
A few weeks before his 23rd birthday, ‘Bronco’ came to the UK and dispatched of former IBF champion Josh Warrington in devastating fashion. And in the two rounds of their subsequent rematch – stopped when an accidental clash of heads left Lara with a deep cut above his eye – the early feeling was a similar outcome may well have been on the cards.
Though despite Lara’s astonishing rise at such a young age, Wood is convinced he is the better fighter.
Prior to the hook that dropped him emphatically, the Nottingham man had boxed commendably and frustrated Lara. He was even ahead on all three judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
![Wood insists that he feels like he's the 'better fighter' heading into Saturday night's bout](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/27/10/71475095-12124777-image-a-14_1685179540158.jpg)
Wood insists that he feels like he’s the ‘better fighter’ heading into Saturday night’s bout
‘I think the hardest thing to swallow is that I feel like I’m a better fighter,’ he claims. ‘I feel like I can beat him and nine times out of 10 I feel like I would. That’s the most frustrating thing.
‘If I got beat by someone better, then it probably would have been easier to deal with. The fact that I just know I’m better, I know how to beat him, I was beating him, I was past the hardest part, which is the most unpredictable and dangerous part of fighting him, the first few rounds when he throws more punches from anywhere and anything he can see he throws, that was the most frustrating thing knowing that.’
Before they exchange fists this weekend, Wood and Lara went face to face for the penultimate time at Thursday’s final press conference. When the former champion sits down to speak with Mail Sport over Zoom, the fighting talk is now done, with Friday’s weigh-in the last hurdle to overcome before it’s time to do battle.
A seismic task awaits Wood in Manchester as he looks to avenge the most crushing defeat he has ever endured. So are any butterflies beginning to creep in?
![Lara will not be able to retain the title even if he wins, with the belt set to be declared vacant in the case of the Mexican's victory, following his failure to make weight](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/27/10/71475093-12124777-image-a-13_1685179510851.jpg)
Lara will not be able to retain the title even if he wins, with the belt set to be declared vacant in the case of the Mexican’s victory, following his failure to make weight
‘Not at all mate,’ he insists. ‘It can’t come quick enough for me Saturday night. I can’t wait to get in there, done everything I need to do. I’ve prepared perfectly.
‘I’ve been studying Mauricio Lara since last June or July, I know him inside out – better than he knows himself! It can’t come quick enough and I’m looking forward to getting in there.’
And whisper it quietly, but for Wood and his team knocking out a Mexican is no impossible feat…
‘There’s more than one way to knock someone out, and coming out looking for it is not always the way to go about it. The preparation I’ve had for this fight and game plan, I can see that happening later on in the fight.’
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