Former super middleweight world champion Carl Froch has reversed his opinion with respect to last Saturday’s stoppage in the WBA featherweight title fight between Leigh Wood and Mauricio Lara in Nottingham.
Wood was well ahead on the official scorecards, when Lara connected with a perfect left hand in the seventh round – which dropped Wood hard on his back.
Wood struggled to get to his feet, but he beat the count. Once he made it up, it was evident Wood’s legs were still unsteady as he wobbled around.
The referee was about to resume the action – when Wood’s head trainer, Ben Davison, threw in the towel – which in turn made Lara the TKO winner and the new WBA champion.
The boxing public was divided over Davison’s decision to stop the fight – as the round was nearly complete with only a handful of seconds remaining.
Initially, Froch felt the stoppage came a bit too soon and Davison should have allowed Wood to continue.
After speaking to Wood the following day, Froch changed his position on the stoppage.
“My initial response to the towel coming in was that it was too early. There were like six seconds left in that round. If [Davison] didn’t throw the towel in, [Wood] would have survived the six seconds and had a minute rest and then the fight could have gone on,” Froch explained.
“But after speaking to Leigh Wood [Sunday], earlier [Sunday], he said, ‘Look, I was gone. My legs were gone.’ Ben Davison knows Leigh Wood better than any of us. He was in training camp with him. It was a compassionate move by him. I initially thought it was hasty, but looking back on it, listening to Leigh, it was the right thing to do.”