Mauricio Lara STRIPPED of featherweight title earlier than Leigh Wood combat
M
auricio Lara has been stripped of his WBA world featherweight title on the eve of what would have been his first defence of the belt towards Leigh Wood.
A swift Manchester rematch of Lara’s thrilling seventh-round knockout win from February descended into farce on Friday, when it emerged that the champion was practically 4 kilos over the featherweight restrict at 129.8lbs.
It transpired that the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC) had been sad with Lara’s weight at a routine examine earlier this week and subsequently prevented him from attempting to chop within the days earlier than the weigh-in, ruling it was not secure and that he couldn’t tip the scales at lower than 128.5lbs.
However, Wood himself was on monitor at championship weight at 125.9lbs and eager to nonetheless combat for the title regardless of the potential security dangers concerned of giving up a lot weight to a huge-hitter like Lara.
The WBA later made the choice to strip the Mexican, with solely Wood now in a position to choose up the vacant belt with a win on combat night time.
The bout remains to be set to go forward on the time of writing, although Wood’s coach Ben Davison prompt his workforce had a choice to make about whether or not or to not proceed on security grounds.
“Realistically, it shouldn’t be happening, should it? It’s a disgrace to be honest,” he advised DAZN. “I’ve got nothing against Mauricio Lara and the whole team – they’ve been respectful all the way throughout – but it’s an absolute shambles.
“We heard about his weight while Leigh’s on weight. There’s no point then going, ‘oh Lee, let’s just bring you up’… there are going to be smarta***s that say, ‘why did you bring him in at championship weight’? Leigh is already at championship weight.
“What’s the point in then Leigh not being able to win the title tomorrow?
“We’ll have to go away and talk amongst ourselves and have a look at the situation. He’s a dangerous fighter anyway. I know he has really struggled to just get to where he’s got to, so it’s something else we have to take into consideration.
“Leigh’s whole motivation behind this is to become a two-time world champion.”