Wood vs Lara: Results, Highlights, Play-by-play

Check out the results and highlights of Leigh Wood vs Maurico Lara

Leigh Wood and Mauricio Lara clash today in a battle for Wood’s WBA featherweight title. Both men are aggressors by nature, Join us for live coverage of the main event and results throughout the night.

Wood (26-2, 16KOs) comes in on the back of one of the most spectacular victories of last year, as he came from behind to knock Michael Conlan clean out of the ring last April. Lara, meanwhile, burst onto the scene when he put a heavy beating on hometown favourite Josh Warrington in 2021, and he’s hoping to repeat the trick here.

The card will be available on DAZN. Coverage starts at 2PM ET (7PM GMT), with main event ringwalks expected at about 5:50 PM (10.50 GMT), but keep an eye out here for changes to that.

If you’re interested in the early prelims, DAZN often air a before-the-bell show on youtube, but announcement of that and which fights are on it usually doesn’t happen till quite late, so keep an eye on DAZN boxing’s twitter and youtube accounts should you be interested.

update: those early prelims have started, two fights down, on DAZN boxing’s youtube channel.

update: okay, the prelims are done. Main card starts in half an hour, because unlike the UFC, boxing cards don’t typically stretch prelim cards to fill in the time till the main card starts.

update: main event time next.

Main Event Play-by-play

Round 1: Big crowd for this one in Wood’s Nottingham hometown, they’re hyped. They meet in the middle, Wood jabbing. Both trying to jab and feint their way in. An unexpectedly tentative opening, then wood tries a 1-2 stepping in. Lara trying to time Wood’s jab with an uppercut, then Wood lands a good hook to Lara upstairs. Leaping jab from Lara but takes a counter in return. Starts to heat up as the round closes. 10-9 Wood.

Round 2: Wood has a cut by his left eye, that was from a calsh of heads. And a nice left hook rocks Lara back! Wood’s measuring distance well so far, Lara struggling to get close. And another left hook drives Lara back! Steps in, lands a couple, then they tie up. And a stiff jab moves Lara again. Left hook in close and then he ties up. Another clash of heads as they step in together. Wood tries that left hook again and Lara beats him to it with a counter now, and starts working the body. And a big right wobbles Wood, who clings on! Lara opens up to finish the round, but Wood survives! 10-9 Lara, 19-19

Round 3: Lara has not jumped on Wood to start the round, pretty cautious from him so far. Wood looks steady, Lara doesn’t want to be countered. The first minute has just been Wood jabbing, and now a straight right. Lara opens up now but Wood takes it on the guard. Slip and counter sends Lara back, the straigh right down the pipe is dangerous, but working for him so far. Those counters are getting Lara really hesitant. Strong recovery round from Wood. 10-9 Wood, 29-28

Round 4: Leaping lead uppercut from Lara catches wood, then he catches Wood with a pair of shots. Wood gets his range back, though. Huge right hand rocks Lara, but he keeps coming. And again. Lara really needs to show more on approach, he’s struggling with the range. Nice bodyshots now, though. Wood is boxing superbly, slipping away from much of Lara’s work and countering. 10-9 Wood, 39-37

Round 5: Wood’s performance so far is a lesson to Lara why going 100% all the time isn’t always great. He can’t relax, but he’s not getting close the way he wants. Early exchanges see Wood, again, slipping the biggest shots and answering to the body. Wood gets into a short exchange and has his head snapped back, but then a bodyshot leaves Lara shaking his head. Wood is rattling Lara with some of these now. Excellent boxing. Lara lands one clean hook as the round ends, but Wood lands a couple. 10-9 Wood, 49-46

Round 6: Lara starting to feel the urgency now. But Wood’s jab and the follow up straight rights are making it really hard for him. Now a bit of a matador move, then a bodyshot and Lara sags to the ropes. Wood cautious, but aggressive, and Lara’s got very little at the moment. Lara demoralised. He’s missing most of his shots now, while Wood continues to score. Lara gets desperate as the round closes, but he’s wild. He does land a big shot right at the end, but 10-9 Wood, 59-55

Round 7: We’re into the second half, which a lot of us didn’t think we would reach. It’s getting very one-sided. Lara feinting, not throwing, he has no ideas right now. Wood just jabbing, then throwing little left hooks as Lara does come in. Couple of little warning signs as a sharp jab from Lara rocks the head back then an uppercut just misses. Big right from Wood, but he does take a shot back there. And Wood goes down in the seventhon simultaneous left hook. He’s up but Ben Davison stops it! What a comeback! Sensational turnaround!

Looking at the replays, it’s odd that Davison stopped it there. Earlier is better than later, mind, but there were ten seconds left in the round. He did take a while to raise his gloves to the referee though, so… well, it is what it is.

Wood probably deserves a rematch, but Lara wins.

Lara TKO-7

Results

WBA World Featherweight title: Leigh Wood TKO-7 Mauricio Lara

British super-lightweight title: Dalton Smith UD Billy Allington 120-107, 119-108, 119-108

Lightweight: Gary Cully TKO-2 Wilfredo Flores

Crusierweight: Cheavon Clarke UD10 Israel Duffus 98-88, 98-88, 98-90

Super-bantamweight: Diego Alberto UD Gamal Yafai 98-89, 97-90, 97-91

Middleweight: Aaron Bowen KO-1 Mathieu Gomes

Light middleweight: Junaid Boston TKO-7 Peter Kramer

Super middleweight: Kieron Conway def. Jorge Silva 80-72 (ref’s decision)

Super lightweight: Sam Maxwell def. Shaun Cooper 60-54 (ref’s decision)