Michael Conlan Calls Anthony Cacace – Leigh Wood

Michael Conlan doesn’t agree with the 50-50 billing. The Belfast boxer believes the odds are heavily stacked in Anthony Cacace’s favour.

Ireland’s most recent male world champion takes on Leigh Wood in an eagerly anticipated super featherweight encounter at Nottingham Arena this weekend.

The bout is being billed as an impossible-to-call throwback between evenly matched former world champions, although Conlan doesn’t see it that way.

Ireland’s only ever male amateur world champion says the Anderstown native has the advantages going into this weekend’s clash.

“Anto is skilful, he can punch, he can fight when he needs to fight and he can box when he needs to box,” said Conlan speaking to the Irish News.

As well as having the attributes to win the bout, the soon-to-be European title challenger, who suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Wood in March of 2022, also believes ‘The Apache’ has momentum in his favour.

“Leigh Wood has been out of the ring longer than I was. I was 16 months out and he’s 20 months out of the ring.

“When he fought me, he didn’t fight for a year after that, which was an awful long time. He fought Mauricio Lara in early May the following year and they rematched quite quickly and then he fought Josh Warrington (October 2023) all in the same year.

“He was active that year, but he’s been very inactive since, he hasn’t fought since he beat Warrington. That’s an awful long time, it’s nearly two years to the ring.

“Anto is getting in there with proper momentum, proper activity and the belief of a champion.”

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In terms of in the confines of the ring, Conlan believes his fellow Belfast favourite has the advantages there too.

“I believe Anto wins convincingly, possibly by stoppage because Anto also punches hard. They both punch hard, yes, but I think Anto’s skillset is better. I think he’s the better boxer out of the both of them.

“He hasn’t been through the mill. Leigh’s been through the mill a lot of times now and there’s only so many times you can do that. I’m leaning heavily towards Anto in this fight.”