Cacace ‘Too Good’ for Wood: Veteran Boxer Scores TKO Win, Eyes Bigger Fights

Anthony Cacace (24-1, 9 KOs) says he feels like he’s aging in reverse, like the movie character “Benjamin Button,” the advanced age of 36, with his ninth-round technical knockout of former two-time WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood (28-4, 17 KOs) last Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Notthingham, England.

Wood was outboxed and out-slugged by the taller, better-skilled Cacace. In the ninth round, Cacace went for the finish, unloading with a blizzard of punches, sending Wood stumbling into the ropes. Referee John Latham gave him a standing eight count. Leigh tried to fight back afterward, but Cacace continued with his relentless assault, nailing him with hooks, uppercuts, and body shots.

Towel of Surrender

At the end, Wood desperately tried to retreat across the ring, turning his back on Cacace. Wood’s trainer saw that his fighter was in a desperate position and chose to throw in the towel of surrender. Davison is getting quite good at his towel-throwing, as he’d done it before with Wood. He should have stood and fought like a warrior to the end, but turned his back and ran. I don’t know what to say about that. It kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? The time of the stoppage was at 2:15 of round nine.

Cacace showed with his performance that he’s still fighting at a high level, and hasn’t lost anything from his victories last year against Joe Cordina and Josh Warrington. However, Wood, 36, wasn’t the ideal gauge to tell how much the Irish native Cacace has left in the tank. Leigh was coming off a 19-month layoff, and he’d never been considered a true elite-level world-class fighter.

Wood’s claim to fame was beating Can Xu, Mauricio Lara, and Michael Conlan. None of those fighters is in the same galaxy talent-wise as the killers at featherweight today: Rafael Espinoza, Stephen Fulton, Nick Ball, and Angelo Leo. Even the contenders at featherweight, fighters like Bruce Carrington and Brandon Figueroa, would be a pure nightmare for Wood.

Age Defied

“I feel like I’m the Benjamin Button of boxing. I’m working from the old age down,” said Anthony Cacace to Ring Magazine, about the high level he’s still performing at, fighting like a fighter in his late 20s.

“To get that one tonight was special. I’m super happy I got the result. I’m going to be moving on to bigger and better things. Tonight, I was a little bit too good [for Leigh Wood].”