Boxing: Plenty of world title action over the weekend
There is plenty of world title fight action over the coming weekend. Michael Conlan challenges Luis Alberto Lopez for the IBF featherweight title at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
WBO cruiserweight champion Laurence Okolie defends his title against Chris Billam-Smith at the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, England.
WBA featherweight champion Mauricio Lara defends his title against former champion Leigh Wood at the AO Arena in Manchester, England.
At the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California, WBO minimumweight champion Melvin Jerusalem defends against WBO No 1 Oscar Collazo.
CONLAN VS LOPEZ
Luis Alberto Lopez (27-2; 15) defends his IBF featherweight title against Michael Conlan (18-1; 9), who won the title in December 2022, when he beat Josh Warrington on a majority points decision.
This will be Lopez’s first defence and Conlan will have the advantage of fighting in front of his home crowd.
The only loss on Conlan’s record came against Leigh Wood in a challenge for the IBF featherweight title.
The odds are for Lopez to win at +105 and Conlan to win at -135.
OKOLIE VS BILLAM-SMITH
The 30-year-old Lawrence Okolie is the favourite against the 32-year-old Billlam-Smith, who were once training partners and did in the region of 300 rounds in the sparring ring.
However, the friendship will be put aside when they get in the ring and fight for the title.
Billam-Smith is coming off a good win over Armend Xhoxhaj in Bournemouth in March this year and has only suffered one loss in 18 fights.
Okolie is unbeaten in 19 fights and successfully defended his title against the mandatory challenger David Light in his last fight.
LARA VS WOOD
Leigh Wood (26-2) defends his WBA featherweight title against Mauricio Lara (25-2-1).
They were scheduled to meet in September last year, but the fight was postponed when Wood was injured.
Leigh will have the advantage of fighting in his hometown. Wood won the WBA ‘Regular’ title when he upset Xu Can in 2021.
However, in December 2022 after Leo Santa-Cruz vacated the WBA ‘Super’ featherweight title, Wood was elevated to full WBA champion.
As a relatively unknown, Lara travelled to the United Kingdom in 2021 and upset the favoured Josh Warrington in the ninth round.
Both fighters are power punchers, and it is on the cards that the fight will not go 12 rounds.
JERUSALEM VS COLLAZO
Melvin Jerusalem (20-2; 12) defends his WBO minimumweight title against the No 1 challenger Oscar Collazo (6-0; 4).
If Collazo wins, he will become the fastest-ever world champion from Puerto Rico.
The current record is held by Alex “Nene” Sanchez who won the same WBO minimumweight title after 11 fights.
