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Leigh Wood is ready to return to the ring.
Whether or not his secondary WBA featherweight title will depend on what comes of his latest round of ordered talks with Leo Santa Cruz.
The threat of a title consolidation bout is back on the table for the streaking Brit, who was medically cleared to resume his career. Wood was forced to withdraw from a planned title defense versus Mexico City’s Mauricio Lara (25-2-1, 18KOs), after a biceps injury led to the cancellation of his September 24 hometown headliner in Nottingham, England. The development prompted the WBA to reorder a bout with Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19KOs), who holds the ‘Super’ featherweight title. The two sides have until December 8 to reach terms before heading to a purse bid on December 12 during the annual WBA convention.
“We’re up for the Santa Cruz fight… Mauricio Lara, Kiko Martinez. Leigh Wood will be back out in January,” Hearn revealed in a recent interview with iD Boxing.
Wood (26-2, 12KOs) has not fought since his come-from-behind, twelfth-round knockout of Michael Conlan in their Fight of the Year-level slugfest on March 12 in Nottingham. The bout saw Wood rise from the canvas and overcome a scorecard deficit to twice floor and eventually knock Conlan out to defend the secondary WBA title he has held since last August.
The WBA has made at least four attempts to consolidate the featherweight title, with both sides continuing to find ways to manipulate the sport’s oldest sanctioning body. The latest order comes with the threat of at least one version of the title being stripped should either side fail to go through with the fight.
There has been minimal indication from either party—Matchroom Boxing for Wood and TGB Promotions on behalf of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) for Santa Cruz—to suggest any real interest in proceeding with the fight. The previous round saw WBA president Gilberto Mendoza bend the knee and allow separate interim fights—Wood versus Lara and Santa Cruz eyeing a title unification bout with WBC claimant Rey Vargas—only for both fights to fall through.
That said, Santa Cruz doesn’t have anything lined up while Wood is at least armed with a targeted time frame for his next outing. It could lead to good news as it relates to this piece of lingering business—or it could just lead to Wood moving on altogether.
“It’s been ordered for a while. They were both having interim fights but Leigh Wood got injured,” explained Hearn of the last round of negotiations. “We don’t agree with the split which is 75-25 (in Santa Cruz’s favor) but we need to get moving with Leigh Wood’s career. He’s going to fight in January. We’re speaking to PBC, etcetera, and we’ll take it from there.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox