Leigh Wood is confident of upsetting Xu Can and believes coach Ben Davison will be crucial in helping to secure victory.
Wood will attempt to dethrone WBA ‘Regular’ featherweight world champion, Can at Matchroom’s first Fight Camp tonight, live on DAZN.
The Nottingham man became British champion with a ninth round stoppage of Reece Mould in February in his first fight under Davison’s guidance and believes the former trainer of Tyson Fury will play a key part in ending the 27-year-old’s reign.
“Ben’s perception of boxing as well, it’s going to be key to this victory on Saturday,” Wood said on a media zoom conference call on Tuesday.
“A lot of people will be watching it and thinking, I don’t want to say too much but they may think Can Xu has had a bad night or he couldn’t do what he wanted to do for whatever reason.
“But it’ll be what I’m doing and what I’m making him do and not letting him do which will be key and a lot of people won’t see that.”
The clash was elevated to the main event at the Matchroom headquarters after Conor Benn’s scheduled meeting with Adrian Granados was postponed, after the Brit tested positive for COVID-19.
The Chinese champion makes a third defence of his crown with his last fight a unanimous decision win over Manny Robles III in November 2019.
The ‘Monster’ is known for having one of the highest punch outputs in the sport, however ‘Leigh-thal’ believes the style will work in his favour.
“This is a great clash of styles on Saturday,” the 32-year-old added.
“And I think you’re going to see the best of me that you’ve seen, even though its been not as long a camp as others.
“And I think just the styles clash itself plays in my favour.”
Can was in talks for a clash with Josh Warrington earlier this year, prior to him vacating his IBF belt and enduring a shock loss to Mauricio Lara in February.
The pair will fight again on September 4th, whilst Wood’s former stablemate, Kid Galahad and previous opponent, Jazza Dickens contest the vacant IBF title next Saturday.
Wood, who is managed by Dave Coldwell admits he would be keen to face the winner of next week’s domestic world title clash as well as WBO champion, Emanuel Navarrete providing he is successful.
“That’s a massive fight [Galahad vs Dickens], but I can’t look past Saturday.
“There’s some great fights out there for me. We were actually going to go the WBO route and pursue Navarrete for the WBO, which is a really good fight in my opinion.
“He’s powerful, he’s got long arms, but his feet are quite bad and he makes a lot of mistakes, so that would be an exciting fight for us two as well.
“But yeah there’s some massive fights out here, but they can all dissolve into the abyss if I’m not fully focused on Saturday which I am.”
