Wood produces miracle 12th-round KO of Conlan to retain title in sensational fight
Plus notes: Kovalev-Pulev card set; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Trailing on all three scorecards, having been down earlier in the fight and his face bruised and cut, Leigh Wood never stopped swinging until the miracle rally was complete.
In one of the most dramatic comebacks in recent boxing history, Wood stormed back in the 12th round and scored a punishing knockout that ejected mandatory challenger Michael Conlan from the ring as Wood’s hometown crowd at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England, went wild on Saturday.
Wood retained the WBA “regular” featherweight title for the first time in the DAZN main event, having also won the 126-pound belt by 12th-round knockout of Xu Can in July in a fight Wood was winning handily on the scorecards.
That was not the case against Conlan, who had hurt Wood numerous times and was on the verge of claiming the title before he took three tremendous right hands to the head that forced him to bend over and sag along the ropes before he slid between the bottom and second rope and tumbled backward to the arena floor with his feet straight up in the air as he went down.
Referee Steve Gray immediately waved off the fight at 1 minute, 25 seconds and, after several minutes of medical attention, Conlan was taken to the hospital.
A few hours later, Conlan posted to his Twitter account, “I’m all good folks, cheers for the messages. I’ll be back, good shot and congrats to Leigh and his team.”
But the scary knockout that ended a sensational action fight left Wood and his team concerned for Conlan and tempering their immediate celebration.
“I hope Michael is alright. I can’t really celebrate yet until I know he’s alright,” Wood said right after the fight. “My thoughts are with him at the minute. He’s so tough. I hit him with everything. He’s so tough.”
It’s only March but the fight surely will be in the conversation for fight of the year. It started with bang, produced great action throughout and then ended with the Hail Mary knockout.
Conlan looked like he might end the fight in the opening round when he knocked Wood down hard with a clean left hand.
Conlan, who spent much of fight fighting out of southpaw stance, hammered Wood with his left hand throughout the fight. Wood did not have an answer for it other than toughness.
Conlan continued to batter Wood in the second, although Conlan suffered a cut over his left eye from an accidental head butt.
It took Wood a few rounds to get his legs back from the punishment he took in the first two rounds, but Conlan kept throwing — and often landing and rocking — Wood with looping left hands.
Wood (26-2, 16 KOs), 33, suffered a cut over his left eye from an accidental head but in the fifth round and he had also had bruises around both eyes from taking so many clean shots in what became a grinding, inside fight.
Northern Ireland’s Conlan (16-1, 8 KOs), 30, a two-time Olympian and 2012 bronze medalist, was getting the better of the action, often with his left hand. But he also did considerable damage with a consistent body assault. A right hook and a body shot seemed to hurt Wood in the sixth round as did another powerful left to the head in the eighth round.
But as Conlan tired, Wood rallied in the final rounds. In the 11th round, after Conlan landed several digging body shots, Wood dropped Conlan with a left hook a tick before the bell ended the round. Conlan complained to Gray that he had slipped but replays showed Wood landing a clean punch.
“I think I buzzed him but I need to watch it back,” Wood said of knocking Conlan down. “I’m just thinking about Mick at the minute. I can’t get him off my brain. It was a bad knockout so I just want to see if he’s alright.”
Perhaps boosted by the knockdown, Wood came out with fierce intentions in the 12th round, probably believing he needed a knockout, or at least a knockdown, to win the fight. He went for it and the result was Conlan being knocked out of the ring and Wood having dramatically retained his title.
“We should be celebrating one of the greatest comebacks I’ve seen in a ring but, of course, all we’re doing is praying for Michael Conlan. It was right above us. (Wood) took him out and he fell through the ropes,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, unsure of Conlan’s condition, said minutes after the bout. “The fight was over and it was just the most brave, courageous fight back from Leigh Wood.”
According to CompuBox statistics, Wood landed 135 of 497 punches (27 percent) and Conlan landed 171 of 425 (40 percent), including landing 80 body shots.
Conlan was leading 105-102, 104-103 and 104-103 at the time of the knockout although those scores seemed generous to Wood.
Even Hearn, Wood’s promoter, who won the promotional rights by outbidding Conlan promoter Top Rank at a purse bid, thought Conlan was in firm control.
“I thought it was a master class from Michael Conlan,” Hearn said. “Leigh come on in the 11th and, if I’m honest, coming out for the 12th round I couldn’t really see a way that he could turn that fight around. To win that fight by knockout is one of the best comebacks in a fight and, of course, our thoughts are with Michael Conlan. But this man as well showed so much heart. You cannot believe what he went through in there. He never gave up. He never stopped believing. And Michael Conlan, he boxed a master class performance. He was ahead going into the last round. He was winning the fight for me.
“Leigh Wood had to knock Michael Conlan out in the 12th round to remain world champion and he did it but, like I said, we’d love to celebrate but all we can think about is Michael Conlan. Everyone’s thoughts are with him right now.”
Hearn won the purse bid with an offer of $1,566,666 to beat the only other bid of $1,210,000 made by Top Rank. Wood was entitled to 55 percent, a career-high purse of $861,666.30 and Conlan got 45 percent, also a career-high of $704,999.70.
Wood figures to make even more for his next defense after such a memorable performance against Conlan. The WBA has said it will mandate that he next face “super” titleholder Leo Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs) but there also other potentially lucrative bouts for him too.
“We’ll celebrate when the time is right, but you’ve got a huge featherweight world championship fight coming up in two weeks between (former titlist) Josh Warrington and (IBF titleholder) Kiko Martinez. The winner of that fight in a big unification fight (with Wood), Leo Santa Cruz, (WBO titlist Emanuel) Navarrete. I said to Leigh Wood on the ring walk, ‘This is it, this is your moment, but it’s just the beginning.’ But he left it to the last 90 seconds to change his life again.
“It was the most incredible atmosphere here tonight. It shows you how great this sport is, but also how dangerous this sport is, and how much these warriors deserve our utmost respect. So congratulations, Leigh Wood. Our thoughts are with Michael Conlan. We’ll talk about the future when the time is right.”
Kovalev-Pulev card official
Triller on Friday made official what Fight Freaks Unite previously reported — that former unified light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev will meet Tervel Pulev in a 10-round cruiserweight that will headline a Triller Fight Club pay-per-view card on May 14 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Also announced was the other fight previously reported, former two-time heavyweight title challenger Kubrat Pulev, Tervel’s older brother, versus Andrey Fedosov in the 10-round co-feature.
The card ($29.95) will be available to stream via FITE as well as on traditional linear television pay-per-view and will include music acts in a Triller Verzuz rap battle.
Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs), 38, a Russia native fighting out of Santa Monica, California, has been out of action since losing his light heavyweight title by brutal 11th-round knockout to Canelo Alvarez in November 2019. Kovalev has had two fights since canceled, including a January 2021 bout with fight with Bektemir Melikuziev due to testing positive for synthetic testosterone in a sample given to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.
Tervel Pulev (16-0, 13 KOs), 39, of Bulgaria, claimed an Olympic bronze medal at the 2012 London Games, losing to Oleksandr Usyk in the heavyweight semifinals.
Kubrat Pulev (28-2, 14 KOs), 40, of Bulgaria, is coming off a ninth-round knockout challenging Anthony Joshua for his unified heavyweight title in December 2020.
Fedosov (32-3, 26 KOs), 35, a Russia naïve fighting out of Hollywood, California, has only had three fights since 2016 but is coming off an upset first-round knockout of two-time Olympian Mahammadrasul Majidov in April 2021.
Other pay-per-view undercard bouts will include the fighting sons of former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and former junior middleweight titlist Fernando Vargas.
Junior middleweight Evan Holyfield (9-0, 6 KOs), 24, of Atlanta, will fight in a six-rounder and three of Vargas’ sons will compete in four-rounders. Lightweight amateur standout Emiliano Vargas, who will make his pro debut, junior middleweight Fernando Vargas Jr. (5-0, 5 KOs) and featherweight Amado Vargas (3-0, 2 KOs) will face opponents to be named.
Quick hits
Several of the bouts have already been widely reported but Showtime on Tuesday will host a video conference for media to unveil its upcoming boxing schedule. It is expected to make official a series of Premier Boxing Champions cards between March and June, including the rescheduled Gervonta Davis-Rolando Romero Showtime PPV fight for May 28 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Top Rank announced that lightweight prospect and 2020 U.S. Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis has been forced to withdraw from his fight with Esteban Sanchez in the opener of the ESPN card on March 19 at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden due to a non-Covid-19 illness. The bout will be replaced on the telecast (10 p.m. ET) by Puerto Rican junior welterweight prospect John Bauza (16-0, 7 KOs), a 23-year-old southpaw, against Canada’s Tony Luis (29-4, 10 KOs), 34, in an eight-rounder. The card is headlined by super middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga versus Steve Rolls in a 10-rounder with junior middleweight prospect Xander Zayas against Quincy LaVallais in the eight-round co-feature.
Junior bantamweight Andrew Moloney (22-2, 14 KOs) and bantamweight Jason Moloney (22-2, 18 KOs), 31-year-old twins and former world title challengers from Australia, will return to action on the undercard of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card headlined by unified women’s junior lightweight titlist Mikaela Mayer defending against Jennifer Han, a source told Fight Freaks Unite. No set opponents yet for the brothers, who are both coming off wins following defeats in world title bouts.
As expected, Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov (9-0, 9 KOs), 27, who won the super heavyweight Olympic gold medal at this past summer’s Tokyo Games, has signed a deal to be co-promoted by Probellum along with Lou DiBella. Probellum and DiBella recently announced an alliance under which several DiBella boxers would be co-promoted by Probellum. The 6-foot-7, 250-pound Jalolov, whose last bout was on a Probellum card in December, will face Poland’s Kamil Sokolowski (11-25-2, 4 KOs), 35, in an eight-rounder on Probellum’s March 18 card in Dubai. “Everyone in the heavyweight division knows all about me and, deep down, they know it is only a matter of time before I take over,” Jalolov said.
Coming off a 28-month layoff, Flint, Michigan, middleweight Ardreal Holmes (12-0, 5 KOs) overcame a left hand injury in the second round and survived a tough test from Chicago’s Vernon Brown (13-2-1, 9 KOs) in the main event of Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation” card Friday night at the Deadwood Mountain Grand in Deadwood, South Dakota. Holmes won 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94. Also: Dominican lightweight Edwin De Los Santos (14-1, 13 KOs) dropped Houston’s Luis Acosta (12-1, 11 KOs) in the first round and knocked him out with a clean left hand at 48 seconds of the second round and amateur standout Giovanni Marquez (1-0), 21, a welterweight from Houston and the son of “ShoBox” analyst Raul Marquez, who is also his trainer, made his pro debut. He hurt his left hand in the second round but outpointed Nelson Morales, 40-36, 39-37, 39-37.
Show and tell
When the coronavirus pandemic was officially declared in March 2020, it shut down much of the world and boxing was no exception. Top Rank was scheduled to put on two shows at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, the first headlined by then-featherweight titlist Shakur Stevenson making his first defense against former title challenger Miguel Marriaga on March 14 and the second on March 17 with featherweight Michael Conlan taking on Belmar Preciado in the main event of the St. Patrick’s Day card. With Covid-19 raging throughout New York, there was uncertainty whether the cards would take place.
I was due to go to New York to cover Stevenson-Marriaga but the day before I decided to skip the trip because of the virus spread. The next day Top Rank, Garden officials and the New York State Athletic Commission decided to cancel both shows. They were canceled (and boxing was shut down for months) beginning on March 12, 2020 — two years ago on Saturday. The cards were canceled but, of course, I have posters from the both events that never happened in my boxing collection.
Wood-Conlan photos: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
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Great fight - respect to both lads and glad Mick seems to be okay.
Mick will probably get a rematch but I think Leigh's next fight is most likely to be the winner of Martinez vs Warrington 2.
What a fight!!! What a finish!!! I expected.....well I’m sure most of us expected, a dominant win at the very least by Conlan. The ko was devastating and I can’t remember a fight where the ko wasn’t replayed a hundred times. Not once last night, I’m guessing out of fear of the possibility of a terrible outcome. So much concern and justified. Fortunately Conlan posted a pretty upbeat video from the hospital and reported an all clear CT scan. Here is a replay from an angle the broadcast didn’t catch. Lights turned off with one punch. Hope Conlan can find a second act.
https://youtube.com/shorts/KaOtOi-sWrk?feature=share