There is a huge bonanza of world title action going on in the UK today, with cards being issued from Manchester, Belfast and Bournemouth, all dominated by world title bouts.
We’ll be here from 2pm ET with live coverage of everything that’s going on and we’ve got some quick show pods if you scroll down, but the main highlights are:
- Manchester (DAZN): Mauricio Lara vs Leigh Wood, rematch, featherweight, 12 rounds, for vacant WBA title only Wood can win
- Belfast (ESPN+): Luis Alberto Lopez vs Michael Conlan, featherweight, 12 rounds, for Lopez’s IBF title
- Bournemouth (FITE+): Lawrence Okolie vs. Chris Billam-Smith, cruiserweight, 12 rounds, for Okoli’s WBO title.
We’ll be keeping track of all three cards and just going around and telling you what’s going on in this stream, and of course we’ll have a discussion in the comments section:
From Manchester (DAZN, 2pm ET)
The fight of the evening between Mauricio Lara (26-2-1, 19 KOs) and Leigh Wood (26-3, 16 KOs) had, frankly, a lot of wind in the sails. Lara doesn’t make weightand the WBA Featherweight title is only on the line for Wood to try to regain it after losing to Lara in February.
Elsewhere on the card: Jack Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs) returns after a long absence to take on Darragh Foley (22-4-1, 10 KOs) in a 10-round bout at 140; Terri Harper (13-1-1, 6 KOs) defends his WBA 154 lbs title against Ivana Habazin (21-4, 7 KOs); Danny Ball (12-1-1, 5 KOs) and Jamie Robinson (15-5-2, 4 KOs) meet for the 147-weight title of England, which is not a British title, the British is bigger than the English; and the prospect of 130/135 Aqib Fiaz (11-0, 1 KO) is looking to grab a second consecutive stoppage win, possibly against Costin Ion (10-3-2, 5 KOs) in 8 rounds.
from Belfast (ESPN+1:30 p.m. EST)
(Also aired on BT Sport in the UK)
Luis Alberto Lopez (27-2, 15 KOs) defended his IBF featherweight title for the first time last December against Josh Warrington in Leeds. ), who is still looking to win his first world title at the age of 31, 14 and a half months after losing to Leigh Wood.
Elsewhere on the card: Anthony Cacace (20-1, 7 KOs) defends what he and Queensberry will call the 130 world title against Damian Wrzesinski (26-2-2, 7 KOs) and Nick Ball (17-0, 10 ) KO) will take on Ludumo Lamati (21-0-1, 11 KOs) in an intriguing featherweight bout with the WBC rankings at stake. Padraig McCrory, Pierce O’Leary, Kurt Walker and more in action.
from Bournemouth (FITE+14:00 Eastern Time)
(Also aired on Sky Sports UK)
Lawrence Okolie (19-0, 14 KOs) defends his WBO junior heavyweight road belt against Chris Billam-Smith (17-1, 12 KOs). It’s a quick turnaround for Okolie, who just beat David Light two months ago, and the first world title for fan-favorite Billam-Smith, former European and Commonwealth champion for the time being.
Elsewhere on the card: Lee Cutler (12-1, 7 KOs) takes on Stanley Stannard (10-0, 4 KOs) while Michael McKinson (24-1, 3 KOs) looks set to win his third straight lower division for some battle with reason, Sam Eggington (33-8, 19 KOs) vs. Joe Pigford (20-0, 19 KOs) and more.
