In Belfast, Northern Ireland from ESPN+/Top Rank, Luis Alberto Lopez continued his string of road wins with a brutal fifth-round knockout of Ireland's Michael Conlan to retain his IBF featherweight title and raise questions about Conlan's future in the sport.
Conlan landed his share of punches in the fight but Lopez was starting to connect regularly in the third and fourth rounds and Conlan would have to change some things to turn the tide.
Conlan tried to box a bit more and was successful- at first, before running into a crunching right uppercut that sent Conlan crashing on his back with his corner immediately throwing in the towel without a count.
Lopez's best hope would be a unification bout against fellow Top Rank fighter and WBO champion Robeisy Ramirez but Ruben Villa is a possible option and another could be a move to 130 pounds to face the Emanuel Navarrete-Oscar Valdez winner.
Should Lopez prefer to stay at 126 pounds, the top-rated contender in Japan's Reiya Abe, who via IBF rules would face the second-ranked contender (currently vacant), which at this time would be a potential English battle between former champion Josh Warrington, who Lopez dethroned via majority decision, and James Dickens.
As for Conlan, it's his second loss by knockout in the last year and he could be a fighter that is damaged goods until he proves that he can take a good shot.
With his drawing power, Conlan could be matched carefully over the next year to eighteen months and should he survive that, I wouldn't rule out a third title shot but any loss during that time could mean the end of Conlan as a contender.
Meanwhile, in Nottingham England, the man who first knocked out Michael Conlan returned to the ring and avenged a knockout loss with an excellent outing as Leigh Wood regained the WBA featherweight title with a unanimous decision win over Mauricio Lara.
Lara had stopped Wood in seven rounds to win the title and Wood activated his rematch clause with most believing that the rematch could end in another KO loss for Wood.
Then Lara missed weight by just under four pounds and was stripped of the WBA title on the scales, so the question then became this- Is Lara going to be even stronger without draining himself to make weight or is this a forewarning of Lara being badly out of shape and giving a listless effort?
Either way, the edict was this- If Lara wins, the WBA title will be declared vacant and should Wood win, he would be the WBA champion as he made the division weight limit.
It turned out to be the latter as Lara would shuffle around the ring following Wood's movement without much urgency or effort and Wood easily fended off any attack on his way to an easy win.
Wood dropped Lara in the second round with a flash knockdown and the rout was on with Wood winning 118-109 (x2) and 116-111 to take the title.
I scored Wood a 118-109 winner as well.
Wood doesn't have in-house unification options with Lopez and Ramirez with Top Rank, and WBC champion Rey Vargas is signed to PBC but a fight against Josh Warrington would be a large draw in the UK and that seems to make the most sense for Wood.
Should Warrington prefer to fight James Dickens and aim for Luis Antonio Lopez instead, Matchroom has another contender in undefeated speedster Raymond Ford that is rated second in the WBA and would be an easy fight to sign.
Jack Catterall returned to the ring for the first time in over a year and dominated Darragh Foley in a fight to sharpen some edges before a bigger fight later this year.
Catterall was the loser in arguably the most controversial decision of 2022 when he lost a split decision to then-unified junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor and various issues scuttled scheduled rematched several times before the WBO (the one title Taylor kept of his four) demanded Taylor defend against Teofimo Lopez, which will happen on June 10th.
Catterall defeated Foley going away by scores of 99-88, 98-89, and 97-90, scoring knockdowns in the seventh and ninth rounds but was deducted a point for the seventh round knockdown for punching Foley while Foley was down.
I gave Catterall every round minus only the lost point at 99-88.
Catterall will likely fight for the WBC title next against Regis Prograis, should Prograis keep his title against late replacement Danielito Zorrilla in June, in what should be an excellent matchup.
Welterweight contender Alexis Rocha was the highlighted star in the evening for DAZN and their Golden Boy card as Rocha pounded veteran Anthony Young into submission through a relentless body attack that forced Young to the canvas in the fifth round and after Young rose, the fight was stopped.
Rocha is the top contender in the WBO for Terence Crawford's title but with the two-fight agreement for later this year between Crawford and Errol Spence, Rocha may be content to stay active and angle for the vacant WBO title when Crawford and Spence are likely to move up after their rematch,
In a major upset in Bournemouth, England, Chris Billiam-Smith won the WBO cruiserweight title over Lawrence Okolie via majority decision.
Billiam-Smith dropped Okolie in the fourth, tenth, and eleventh rounds and Okolie lost two points for holding in the fight, yet somehow one judge saw the fight even at 112.
The other judges saw the fight for Billam-Smith at 116-107 and 115-108.
I haven't watched the bout at this writing.
Editor's Note; After watching the fight, I scored Billiam-Smith the winner at 116-107.
Boxing Challenge
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