Leigh Wood has hit back at Mauricio Lara following the Mexican’s claims that he faked an injury to get out of their fight scheduled for September 24th.
Wood told Boxing Social that Lara is still the man he wants next, stating that the comments from ‘Bronco’ after over his knockout win over Jose Sanmartin in Mexico City made things personal between the pair.
“I would absolutely prefer the Lara fight. He said a few things after his fight and made it quite personal.”
A lot of people will think that I bottled it, you see a few daft comments saying that I pulled out on purpose. So, I would like to put that right – go out and beat him and do what I intended to do in the first place.”
Wood was due to headline in his hometown of Nottingham against Lara before a bicep injury forced the WBA regular champion to withdraw from the bout.
However, as much as Wood wants to face Lara next, he admitted that a fight with the holder of the WBA Super title, Leo Santa Cruz, looks more likely.
“The WBA have ordered me to fight Santa Cruz, so it looks like we’re leaning more towards that now.”
“But we’ll see what happens, boxing’s full of twists and turns and you never really know what’s going to happen.”
Santa Cruz has not fought at featherweight for over three years, so it remains to be seen whether or not he will be capable of returning to 126lbs to face Wood, who won the regular belt last summer.
One things for sure, the next fight for the Nottingham puncher seems sure to be a big one.