Anthony Cacace vs Leigh Wood fight breakdown, betting odds and prediction
Anthony Cacace vs Leigh Wood full fight breakdown
Anthony Cacace (23-1, 8KO) defends his IBO World super-featherweight title to challenger Leigh Wood (28-3, 17KO) at the Nottingham Arena on Saturday, May 10, live on DAZN.
The Belfast Apache won the IBO belt two-and-a-half years ago in 2022, against unbeaten Italian, Michael Magnesi in Manchester. The decision at ringside was split, with two judges scoring the bout to Cacace and one for the defending champion, Magnesi.
The 36-year-old southpaw defending the honours to Poland's Damian Wrzesinski in his only appearance during 2023.
Then, Cacace pulled off a major upset in May 2024 by stopping 'Welsh Wizard' Joe Cordina in eight rounds to take the Olympian's IBF belt away from him.
Ant was ordered by the IBF to face mandatory challenger Ricardo "Sugar" Nunez, but instead vacated the title in favour of a bigger fight with Josh Warrington at Wembley Stadium on the Dubois-Joshua undercard, last September.
Cacace handed Warrington his third defeat in a row by decisioning the "Leeds Warrior" widely on all three cards, one scored at 10 rounds to two.
Ant's career has suffered from inactivity, having just 24 fights in 13 years as a pro, not even averaging two per year. There were two years that went by without a single fight at all - 2018 and 2020.
However, this will be his third world title fight within a year, so he's finally found some regularity at the age of 36.
His fourth challenger gets the home advantage at the biggest live entertainment arena in the East Midlands, with a 10,000 capacity.
Also 36, "Leigh-thal" Wood is a two-time WBA World featherweight champion, trained by Ben Davison. His first-ever defeat in the pro ranks was in his 12th bout, 11 years ago, in 2014. Having never gone past six rounds before, Wood was stopped in the sixth stanza of a British super-bantamweight title fight by Gavin McDonnell.
The first title he ever won was the Midlands Area featherweight belt in his 18th fight, which suggested Wood had a certain ceiling in the sport.
After a second defeat to Jazza Dickens in The Golden Contract featherweight semi-final in 2020, he teamed up with Tyson Fury's trainer, Ben Davison, and the rest, they say, is history.
Together, the dynamic duo won the British title, then the WBA Regular title, both in 2021; then Wood won a fight of the year candidate in dramatic fashion with a 12th round knockout of Michael Conlan in 2022.
A third defeat was registered by that pest, Mauricio Lara, who was known for upsetting British boxers in their homeland. Wood was stopped in the seventh round of their February 2023 match, but the brave boxer instantly called for the rematch, despite concerns from everyone else.
Just three months later, Leigh claimed his WBA featherweight world title back with a dominant performance, dropping the Mexican in the second, winning on points, with two scorecards returned at 118-109.
Then, the Nottingham Forest fan retained his black belt with a stunning seventh round stoppage of Josh Warrington in October 2023 in Sheffield.
Wood had lost all four rounds on all three judges' cards leading up to the KO, so was trailing at the time, before he pulled something magic out of the bag.
Eight of Wood's last 10 victories have come by way of knockout, whereas Cacace has just one stoppage win in his last 10 fights. However, many sparring partners and teammates of Ant's, such as Carl Frampton, have all unanimously agreed that he is the hardest puncher they've ever experienced, which isn't reflected in his record, with just 35% KO ratio.
So, Wood may seem like the bigger puncher on paper, but that could be deceptive.
DID YOU KNOW? The IBO super-featherweight title was once held by the legendary Jeff Mayweather in 1994. He became only the second ever champion, as the governing body had only formed a few years prior in 1988.
Betting Odds
7/4 Wood
18/1 Draw
4/6 Cacace
Prediction
Tim Rickson, BBN Editor: Cacace to win on points.
