Notebook: Conlan on challenging Wood on hostile turf: 'I’ve got to rip the belt off him'

Taylor-Catterall judge punished; Golden Boy announces Ortiz-McKinson undercard; Quick hits; Show and tell

Mar 11, 2022

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Two years ago this month Northern Ireland’s Michael Conlan was preparing for a St. Patrick’s Day fight in New York only to have it canceled a few days beforehand when boxing and much of the world shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Compared to many fighters, however, Conlan has been relatively active since, winning three bouts since, including a decision over countryman and former junior featherweight titlist TJ Doheny in August.

That win netted Conlan the WBA’s interim title, which he was stripped of just weeks later when the organization terminated all of its interim belts. But it made him the mandatory challenger for the regular title and that opportunity is at hand in the biggest fight of Conlan’s career.

He will challenge Leigh Wood for his 126-pound title on Saturday (DAZN, 2 p.m. ET) at Motorpoint Arena in Wood’s hometown of Nottingham, England, with the winner to be mandated to face “super” titleholder Leo Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs) next.

But first things first.

“I’m ready to go,” Conlan said at Thursday’s final pre-fight news conference. “My confidence comes from preparation and my preparation has been fantastic. I’m very confident and very relaxed. We’re here in Nottingham and it’s time to go. There’s not much more to say other than I really can’t wait for Saturday night.

“I know what kind of performance is coming on Saturday night. This is the most relaxed and calm I’ve ever been in a fight week. I don’t feel any pressure. I’m here in the opponent’s back garden and I’ve got to rip the belt off him. I’m just here to do a job. I hope Leigh has had a fantastic training camp. I hope he’s the best Leigh Wood there’s ever been because I believe I will be. It’ll make it all the sweeter when I beat him. I’m just expecting a fantastic performance by myself.”

Conlan (16-0, 8 KOs), 30, a two-time Olympian and 2012 bronze medalist, has been expected by many to fight for — and win — a world title since turning pro after his stellar amateur career.

Wood (25-2, 15 KOs), 33, carried no such expectations when he got an unexpected opportunity to challenge China’s Xu Can for the belt last July in Brentwood, England on one of Matchroom Boxing’s “Fight Camp” cards in the garden behind company headquarters.

Wood was a big underdog but had the best performance of his career. He was ahead on all three scorecards when he knocked out Xu in the 12th round in a shocker.

He will be making his first defense against Conlan and is thrilled to be on a big stage fighting at home in a significant fight.

“I’m buzzing to be here,” Wood said. “It’s been a long, hard road to get here. Back in 2014 that was a terrible night (when Gavin McDonnell knocked him out in the sixth round of their vacant British junior featherweight title fight). I knew the reasons behind it, and I went away and corrected it. Same with both of the defeats I’ve suffered. I went away, changed my team and improved as a fighter. I stayed disciplined, lived the life and that’s why I’m bringing this big night back to Nottingham, I couldn’t be happier.”

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It’s been a decade since there was a major fight in Nottingham, when super middleweight Carl Froch was involved in two super middleweight title bouts there in 2012, a fifth-round stoppage of Lucian Bute to win the IBF title and third-round knockout of Yusaf Mack.

“This is fairy-tale shit, honestly,” Wood said. “Of all the arenas for Carl I was at in the seats screaming, I’m now headlining in the same arena. This isn’t the peak or where I stop.”

Wood said he is ready to put on a show the way Froch did.

“I couldn’t be happier with my camp, my team, everything is on point,” he said. “As Mick said, I’ve got the best version of him and he’s got the best version of me. There’s no excuses after the fight. The best man will win.”

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BBBofC punishes judge

The British Boxing Board of Control, which regulates professional boxing in the United Kingdom, on Wednesday made two notable announcements.

It articulated its policy related to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, saying it “will not permit boxers registered/licensed by the Russian Boxing Federation or Belarusian Federation of Professional Boxing to compete in the United Kingdom under the jurisdiction of the BBBofC at this time.”

It also announced that, after calling judge Ian John-Lewis before the board to explain his controversial 114-111 scorecard that had Scotland’s Josh Taylor winning his undisputed junior welterweight title defense against mandatory challenger Jack Catterall, of England, on Feb. 26, it has downgraded him.

“Following an internal review of the scoring of the Josh Taylor v Jack Catterall contest by all three appointed judges, the Stewards of the Board decided to call Mr. Ian John-Lewis to appear before them to explain his returned card,” the BBBofC said in a statement. “Having considered Mr. Ian John-Lewis’s explanation, the Stewards of the Board decided to downgrade Mr. John-Lewis from an A Star Class to an A Class Official.

“Whilst the Board were satisfied that Mr. John-Lewis’s scorecard did not affect the overall result of the contest, the Stewards of the Board did have issue with his margin.

“As the regulatory body for the sport in Great Britain the British Boxing Board of Control continue to improve and maintain the high quality and consistency in scoring by our licensed officials. As such, the Stewards of the Board have further decided that in addition to each A Star Class Official being evaluated after each bout, as per current procedure, they will now also be subject to a separate individual annual review.

“Finally, the British Boxing Board of Control have contacted the WBO, WBC, IBF and WBA supporting Jack Catterall to be made mandatory challenger for each or all championship sanctioning bodies.”

Judge Victor Loughlin had it 113-112 for Taylor and Howard Foster had 113-112 for Catterall, but it was John-Lewis’ card that caused most of the controversy.

Ortiz-McKinson undercard

Golden Boy announced that light heavyweight Bektemir “Bully” Melikuziev (8-1, 6 KOs), 25, an Indio, California-based Uzbekistan native, will face David Zegarra (34-7, 21 KOs), 37, of Peru, in a 10-round bout on the undercard of the Vergil Ortiz Jr.-Michael McKinson welterweight fight on March 19 (DAZN, 9 p.m. ET) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles.

Melikuziev will be fighting for the second time since he dropped Gabriel Rosado in the third round and then was stunningly knocked out in the third round in a major upset in June.

Golden Boy also announced the opening bout of the four that will stream on DAZN: Evan Sanchez (9-0, 6 KOs), 23, of Parlier, California, against Alejandro Munera (6-6-4, 5 KOs), 32, of Colombia, in a six-round welterweight fight.

The previously announced co-feature is a 10-round welterweight bout between Alexis Rocha (18-1, 12 KOs), of Santa Ana, California, and Las Vegas-based Blair “The Flair” Cobbs (15-0-1, 10 KOs).

Before the DAZN stream, Golden Boy will stream additional preliminary fights on its YouTube channel, including junior middleweight Alex Rincon (9-0, 6 KOs), of Dallas, against Puerto Rico’s Luis Sanchez (9-2, 6 KOs) in an eight-rounder.

Quick hits

Weights from Deadwood, South Dakota, for Friday night’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” card on Showtime (9:35 p.m. ET/PT): Ardreal Holmes 156 pounds, Vernon Brown 157.25; Luis Acosta 133.5, Edwin De Los Santos 133.75; Giovanni Marquez 143, Nelson Morales 144.25.

Junior welterweight contender Jose Zepeda (35-2, 27 KOs), 32, of La Puente, California, returns in a 10-rounder versus Mexico’s Francisco Perez (18-12-1, 13 KOs) in the main event on March 19 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Zanfer Promotions announced. Zepeda’s two losses came in world title fights by disputed majority decision against Jose Ramirez in 2019 and by 12th-round stoppage to Terry Flanagan in a vacant lightweight title bout in 2015. Zepeda won the instant classic 2020 fight of the year against Ivan Baranchyk via fifth-round knockout in which they combined for eight knockdowns (both down four times each) and he is coming off an impressive first-round destruction of Josue Vargas in October in New York to keep himself in position for another title shot.

Probellum announced a multi-fight broadcast deal with Discovery Sports. It begins with cards March 18 and March 19 in Dubai. Discovery will televise them on Eurosport’s linear channels and stream them on discovery+ and the Eurosport App “to millions of homes across 62 markets and territories in Europe and the Indian sub-continent.” There is no deal as of now for coverage in the United States. The March 18 card is topped by female lightweight Estelle Mossely against Yanina del Carmen Lescano and also includes the O’Shaquie Foster-Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov WBC junior lightweight eliminator and 2020 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov. On March 19, Sunny Edwards defends his flyweight title against Muhammad Waseem and former junior welterweight titlist Regis Prograis fights Tyrone McKenna. Discovery will also show Probellum’s April 22 card in Liverpool, England, headlined by bantamweight titlist John Riel Casimero versus Paul Butler.

Ron Stander, who challenged Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship in May 1972, died on Tuesday at his home in the Omaha, Nebraska suburb of Ralston. He was 77. Toddy Standard, his wife, said he died from complications of diabetes. Stander (37-21-3, 28 KOs), who boxed from 1969 to 1982, was best known for getting stopped by Frazier in the fourth round of the world title fight at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha. Stander’s big win on the way to the title shot was when he moved to 23-1-1 with a fifth-round knockout of Earnie Shavers in 1970. Among other notable foes Stander faced, but lost to, were Ken Norton, Scott LeDoux and Gerrie Coetzee. In recent years, Stander was a regular at Omaha native Terence Crawford’s hometown fights.

Show and tell

In his previous three fights, the absolute peak Manny Pacquiao had destroyed Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto and was the No. 1 fighter in the world pound-for-pound. In the first defense of the WBO welterweight title he had taken from Cotto, Pacquiao defended against rugged former titlist Joshua Clottey, who in his previous bout challenged Cotto for his title and gave him an extremely tough fight in a split decision loss. Clottey was the opponent Pacquiao faced after the first negotiation for a fight with Floyd Mayweather cratered over drug testing protocol. The fight was also the first-ever boxing event to take place at AT&T Stadium — home of the Dallas Cowboys — in Arlington, Texas.

Clottey gave Pacquiao nowhere near the kind of competitive fight he had given Cotto, however, and Pacquiao cruised to a near-shutout decision — 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109. It wasn’t much of a fight but it was an awesome experience being ringside at the stadium to cover the fight billed as “The Event.” It was on March 13, 2010 — 12 years ago on Sunday. Here is a beautiful site poster in my collection.

Wood-Conlan photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; John-Lewis photo: Getty Images; “ShoBox” card photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime

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