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Anthony Cacace is expected to vacate his IBF super featherweight title to fight Leigh Wood. The IBF belt will be vacant for #1 Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez (27-1, 27 KOs) and #3 Masanori Rikiish (16-1, 11 KOs) to fight for it.
It makes sense for the 35-year-old Cacace (23-1, 8 KOs) to vacate the IBF title to fight former WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood (28-3, 17 KOs) because it’s a fight that will pay good for Antoni.
Nunez’s Time to Shine?
Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Núñez has looked impressive, knocking out his last 17 opponents since suffering his only career loss to Hiram Gallardo by six-round unanimous decision in June 2018. In Núñez’s last four fights, he has knocked out Miguel Marriaga, Oscar Escandon, Jesús Martin Ceyca and Willmank Canonico Brito.
It’s hard to know how good eight-year pro Rikiish, 30, is because he’s fought unfamiliar opposition his entire career in his native Japan. He has lost once as a pro, but has been fighting under the radar against opposition most fans have never heard of. This is not a good sign.
Little chance of success
The 13-year pro Cacace’s chances of success against ‘Sugar’ Nunez would have been minimal due to the Mexican fighter’s power, youth and aggression. It wouldn’t have been a huge payday for Cacace to face Núñez, and the result probably would have been bad for him.
Last year, Cacace defeated IBF 130-pound champion Joe Cordina, destroying him in eight rounds on May 18 in Riyadh. The fight wasn’t even that close as Cacace was too fast and too busy for the depleted Cordina in that contest. Cacace dropped Cordina in the third round, and she never seemed to recover from it.
In Cacace’s last fight, he defeated former featherweight champion Josh Warrington by a 12-round unanimous decision on September 21 on the Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois card at London’s Wembley Stadium.
I watched the fight, and Cacace seemed to take it easy on Warrington, staying in second gear throughout the contest and not giving her the same rough treatment that Cordina had in their previous fight. If that’s what the game was, it was a kind gesture from Cacace because Warrington looked completely fired up. She would have folded like a cheap dress if Cacace had run over her like he did Cordina all night.
“With Anthony Cacace expected to vacate his IBF belt to fight former champion Leigh Wood, the super featherweight belt will be determined by a bout between top-ranked Eduardo Nunez and Japan’s No. 3 Masanori Rikiishi , they tell me,” said Lance Pugmire X.
