LEON Woodstock believes that his victory is written in the stars and that he will dethrone Belfast’s British super-featherweight champion Anthony Cacace in London on Saturday night.
Woodstock and Cacace will headline the bill at the Copper Box Arena following the postponement of the Carl Frampton-Jamel Herring world title fight and Leicester underdog Woodstock says fate is on his side.
“Things have happened in a certain way for a reason,” he told The Irish News.
“I’m a big believer in the universe and the Most High so I don’t think this is a coincidence. It was always meant to be like this, it was always meant to be the headline fight to give us the most exposure that we could because this is a great fight.”
This fight includes some of the plot lines that featured in last weekend’s rumble between Sean McComb and Gavin Gwynne. Like Gwynne, Woodstock has lost twice as a professional and both defeats came at title level – against Archie Sharp (WBO European) and then Zelfa Barrett (Commonwealth). But will there be a twist to the plot? Like Cacace, McComb was the pre-fight favourite but of course Gwynne was the emphatic winner and Woodstock, who fights with the same rugged, all-action, pressure style and can punch a bit too, predicts another win for the underdog.
“I can’t wait, it’s one of the biggest opportunities I’ve been given and, for me, this is my world title,” he said.
“This is everything, no fight that I have had or will have is going to mean as much as this fight because of what it stands for and what I’ve put into it and how I’ve gone from where I started to this level. So this is my world title, this is my coming of age moment.”
Woodstock didn’t start boxing until he was 16 but immediately made strides in the English amateur ranks with a string of early knockouts. In all, he had 24 contests with 19 wins before he switched to the pros in 2015.
“I always wanted to box, I loved boxing as a kid,” he said.
“There weren’t any local gyms but I used to practice what I saw on TV in my room and I ended up going to Leicester Unity ABC – I was the first person through the door when they had an open night and I’m still there now.”
The fight has been postponed twice and at one stage Woodstock feared that Cacace would not give him a shot at the title he won by beating Sam Bowen in 2019. Cacace contacted him to reassure him that it would go ahead and so Woodstock says he rates the Belfast champion: “As a fighter and as a man”.
However, he’s “100 per cent” confident that his hand will be raised on Saturday night.
“I know what I have to do and what I will do when I get in the ring,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter too much what he does or what he decides to do, it’s all about what I do. I’ve spent too much of my career focussing on the exterior and the opponent and not enough on myself.
“This lockdown has allowed me to spend more time on myself and I’ve learned to focus on me so it doesn’t matter what he does. All that matters is what I do and what I’ve trained to do. I’m 100 per cent confident that I’ll win – my hand gets raised on Saturday night.”
