Leigh Wood beats Xu Can to claim WBA world featherweight title

Leigh Wood claimed withe British featherweight title with victory over Reece Mould in Febuary

Britain’s Leigh Wood claimed the WBA world featherweight title with a shock 12th-round stoppage of China’s Xu Can.

Wood, 32, was only drafted into the fight at six weeks’ notice but dominated his rival to seal the biggest victory of his career.

The Nottingham-born fighter finally sent Xu to the canvas with a right hook to the chin in the final round.

Xu got back up but Wood responded with a flurry of shots and the referee stopped the fight moments later.

The fight headlined the opening week of Matchroom Boxing’s Fight Camp series in Brentwood, Essex.

Conor Benn’s defence of the WBA continental welterweight title against Adrian Granados was due to top the bill but the fight was postponed earlier this week after Benn tested positive for Covid-19.

On the undercard, Chris Billam-Smith added the British and European Cruiserweight titles to his Commonwealth belt with a split decision victory over Tommy McCarthy.

Anthony Fowler beat Rico Mueller with an eighth-round stoppage to set up a meeting with fellow Merseysider Liam Smith in Liverpool on October 9.

Campbell Hatton made it 3-0 as a professional boxer with a points victory against Poland’s Jakub Laskowski, while Jack Cullen won the IBF international super-middleweight title with unanimous decision victory over Avni Yildirim.

Saturday night’s card was the first of four to be broadcast live across BBC Radio 5 live and Sports Extra over the next six weeks, with Kid Galahad v Jazza Dickens and Joshua Buatsi v Ricards Bolotniks coming up over the next two weekends, before Josh Warrington’s rematch with Mauricio Lara on 4 September.