Two-time featherweight world champion Josh Warrington writes for BBC Sport about Leigh Wood’s WBA world title defence against Mauricio Lara on Saturday in Nottingham.

A win for Wood could set up a fight at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground next – possibly an all-English world-title contest against Warrington.

I know this may sound silly coming from a man who was knocked out in nine rounds by Mauricio Lara, but I don’t think the Mexican is world level.

Leigh Wood has proven himself by beating Xu Can and Michael Conlan, and is on the cusp of becoming a highly regarded fighter with some huge nights ahead if he can overcome Lara. He’s taken full advantage of the opportunities that have come up in the past 18 months.

I was the one meant to be fighting then-champion Xu in 2021 for the Ring magazine belt, the belt of all belts, but Lara beat me and that all went out of the window.

That give Wood the chance to fight Xu and he beat him well. The year before, he’d lost to Jazza Dickens. He must have thought his career was over. So certainly he’s got to be thanking his lucky stars, but he’s taken advantage of that position and fully grasped it.

His desire and his heart are up there, no one can question that. We saw that in the Michael Conlan fight – where Wood was hurt in the early stages, but came from behind to win.

But again, I wouldn’t place Conlan as world class either. He’s a brilliant fighter, but he’s not a world champion.

I would say Lara is fringe world level. It’s a great fight for Wood to come through and show he’s gone beyond that domestic and fringe world title level.

‘Wood at a crossroads with style’

Sometimes I think Wood’s at a bit of a crossroads with his style. His desire and his punch power are probably his best attributes.

But I’ve always seen Wood as a bit of an elusive, hands down, switch-hitter kind of fighter.

Since he’s been working with Ben Davison he’s tried to take the fight to people and use his strength.

He finds himself wanting to be elusive but also reminding himself to sit down on his punches.

Lara, first and foremost, is a strong puncher. He’s heavy-handed, but more than that, he doesn’t have a textbook style.

He throws punches from unorthodox angles and he is always trying to knock you out with every shot. There are little things Lara does well. His hook comes longer out than a normal hook does.

When he comes forward, he’ll take a leap into the shot, trying to get full body momentum into it.

In doing that, Lara covers a lot of ground quickly. When you think you’re out of range, he takes that leap forward and he cuts the range and potentially hits you with a shot as well. Wood needs to be wary of that.

Lara a ‘monster’ but boxing beats him

A lot of the boxing public are going to put Lara up there as the favourite. He’s regarded as a monster, a knockout machine.

But in my opinion, Lara relies too much on his punching power. He struggles to come up with another plan. We saw in our rematch he can be weak to the body. We’ve seen him get frustrated in fights.

How do you beat Lara? I think you’ve got to be more clever than I was in the first fight!

My gameplan in our second fight was to be more switched on, tighter, ride the wave of him putting everything into every shot he throws and take over in the second half of the fight. Before the cut caused our rematch to be stopped, I thought I was well on the way to a win.

Good boxing can beat Lara – and Wood is capable of that. If you try to fight inside, that is Lara’s game and that becomes a gun fight, a 50-50.

Wood’s got to keep him busy in the first half of the fight, get Lara frustrated, anticipate those big shots coming in. Target Lara’s body and he will start to tire. Lara will become more predictable as the fight goes on and then Wood can put his foot on the gas and take over.

Lara is the favourite, just, but it should be tight odds. I believe Wood will come with a good enough gameplan to win.

‘No bad blood with Wood’

I’ll be honest, I want Lara to win. Another fight with Lara whets my appetite, it really does.

But that being said, a fight with Leigh would be good as well. I love the prospect of fighting him at the City Ground. The rivalries of both sets of fans – Nottingham Forest and Leeds – would be something special.

I saw Wood at the Forest-Leeds game recently. I got more stick off the Forest PR guy than Wood. It’s just competitiveness with Wood, there’s no bad blood.

With Lara, it’s very personal. He’s said he wants to finish my career and send me into retirement, and that’s borderline personal.

I’m going round houses here, but I’d like Lara to win so I can get my revenge.

That’s not to say I think Lara will win. I’m predicting a late stoppage for Wood. If he can stick to boxing Lara, he can take over in the latter stages and can force a stoppage. That or a points win.

But that’s the great thing about the featherweight division, it’s ever-changing. Always red-hot.

There are so many fights to be made and I’ll be ringside on Saturday night with my notepad. You’ve got to keep tabs on everyone around you.

I want the winner of Lara-Wood – and then go get me a rematch with Luis Alberto Lopez and win that IBF belt back.