Rankin took up boxing late, had half a dozen white collar fights, turned pro and pretty much went straight into the world title scene multi-weight merry go round, being high up the card on televised shows multiple times and I'm pretty sure sky and/or matchroom have even had or on as a pundit too.This garbage should not be taken seriously, it's only there to tick boxes and appease a small minority of wrong uns.
Rankin really is a very low level fighter. Harper has a good chance at beating her. The size difference, if there is one, consists solely of fat.
Both Harper and Jonas have gone from 126 to 154 as they aren’t good enough to beat anyone decent in their own divisions so jump up to cherry pick belts in divisions where the talent pool is absolutely horrendous.
Lara is weak to the body and he generates most of his power at mid-long range. Warrington actually had most of his success inside that range against him, as Lara isn't effective there.
The idea that Joyce v Parker on Ppv greatly overshadows this is laughable. that fight isn’t going to do a huge number of buys and if anything it could really do without wood v Lara being on the same night.
Good fight. Seems to be so many clashes with the boxing lately! My mate is fighting same night at the Olympia.
Josh is a good inside fighter tho..remember Frampton. Don't think Wood is as good as josh on the inside, in fact he's quite poor on the inside is leigh. He hates body shots himself and he struggles to defend them.
To be honest I think Lara stops him inside 4 rounds. I hope I'm wrong, but I think this is a bad matchup for Wood.
I think the problem is the weight divisions correspond to the men's when women are a lot less heavy on average. If the weight divisions were adjusted, it would be more competitive in all divisions.
That would explain why most of the belts at light-heavy and heavy are vacant, and the two live ones are held by the same person... And the heavyweight limit corresponds to cruiser - it's just the classes below light-heavy that correspond to men. Maybe there should just be less divisions overall because the point about talent pools is valid, and womens' weight may well fluctuate more than mens'. (Edit: hadn't realised the sole holder at heavy and light-heavy already lost to Shields, so you can see what the next step is for Shields and Marshall after next weekend whatever happens)
Frampton fought like an idiot that fight let's be fair, as much as he enjoyed it! Agree Leigh doesn't like them, I guess my point is that mid to close distance is where Lara is really ineffective, so take away his best weapon which is his leverage and he will struggle. If you can pivot off him as well, he wont be difficult to beat. I think staying on the outside is the worse place to be against him, unless your countering and constantly jabbing and off-setting. You can't plant your feet in range with him, other then that I don't particularly rate Lara.
