Leigh Wood has won the WBA ‘regular’ featherweight title as Matchroom Fight Camp returned to Eddie Hearn’s back garden in Essex.
After its success during lockdown last summer, the first of three shows took place at Matchroom HQ on Saturday night with Wood clinching the title in the headline act.
The Nottingham fighter, the firm underdog heading into the bout, produced a disciplined and wonderfully effective performance against Can, knocking his opponent down in the 12th round with a huge right hand after controlling large portions of the contest.
While Can rose to his feet, Wood waded in to find the explosive finish his performance warranted with the referee stepping into wave off the contest with the Chinese fighter taking heavy damage with a minute of the fight left.
On the undercard, cruiserweight rivals Tommy McCarthy and Chris Billam-Smith fought out a gruelling 12-round contest with the Bournemouth fighter sealing a split decision win to walk away with the European, Commonwealth and British titles.
Both men held the arm aloft following the final bell with victor Billam-Smith welcoming the possibility of a rematch after their draining encounter.
Elsewhere on the card, Anthony Fowler battered Rico Mueller over eight rounds to keep his impressive run going.
The 30-year-old now has five wins on the bounce since his sole defeat to Scott Fitzgerald in 2019 with his win tonight setting up a huge all-Liverpool clash against Liam Smith.
Campbell Hatton continued his development in the ring with a points victory over Jakub Laskowski.
The 20-year-old, son of British legend Ricky, extended his record to 3-0 with a hard-fought win with his father watching on at ringside.
Jack Cullen meanwhile secured a comprehensive points victory over Avni Yildirim.
Cullen comfortably outboxed the Turk, who only six months ago challenged pound-for-pound great Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez for the WBC and WBA super-middleweight titles.
Canelo secured an easy third round TKO win that night with Cullen easily in control against the predictable Yildirim to extend his record to 20-2.
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