By Eóin Kennedy
Belfast, Northern Ireland has a long and storied boxing history and is a city renowned for providing a constant supply of world class pugilists both at amateur and professional levels. Anthony Cacace is the latest boxer from the city with a very complicated past to bring world championship boxing honors back home. At thirty-five years of age, Cacace is definitely a tad older than what you’d expect from a relatively new world champion (Saturday night was his first defence) but it’s how he’s wearing the burden of being a champion is what’s most important. Against a seasoned professional and former two-time world champion himself, Josh Warrington, Cacace would be asked plenty of questions and he can be extremely please with the answers he provided in Wembley Stadium on Saturday. The big question now is, what’s next for Belfast’s newest star? Let’s take a look at some options.
Eduardo ‘Sugar’ Nunez
Anthony Cacace gave an interview after his victory on Saturday night stating that he may move up to lightweight, which is understandable given that he is huge for the weight class he’s currently a champion of, but he did allude to the fact that the ‘Sugar’ Nunez fight makes a lot of sense and Eddie Hearn has since Tweeted that Cacace should stay at the super-featherweight for this very fight. Given the collaborative working relationship between the Queensbury and Matchroom promotional outfits these days, expect this one to be made next. No objections, it’s a fun fight.
Leigh Wood
Nottingham’s Leigh Wood emerged from Matchroom’s post-Sky Sports re-brand as their most entertaining, reliable and regularly active fighter. Wood ascended from the underground of British boxing to the global mainstream, racking up wins that included the instant-classic against another Belfast man, Michael Conlan. Wood has himself graduated up to lightweight, or at least that seems to be the plan, it’s been a year now since own victory over Warrington. From the outside looking in it appears that Wood is hell-bent on a stadium fight at the City Ground, home of his beloved Nottingham Forrest FC. Whether or not that opportunity for the big stadium fight has come and gone for Wood remains to be seen, and even if it hasn’t, who knows if Anthony Cacace is willing to be the away fighter in such an event. It’s more likely that Cacace will push for his own homecoming on Irish soil, but this match up would be a banger should it get made.
Joe Cordina
The Welsh Wizard, Joe Cordina, had a massive fight scheduled against US superstar, Shakur Stephenson, but a hand injury incurred in sparring has ruled the New Jersey fighter out of that one. Cacace is the man that relieved Cordina of his duties as a world champion and while like Wood, Cordina is making the move upstairs to lightweight and any fight at that classification would come without a world title attached to it, the prospect of revenge would likely be enough to motivate Cordina, and a big payday plus world title eliminator status for the winner could fulfill Cacace. Their first fight wasn’t close, Cacace dominated, but it would be fascinating to see if anything would change at a higher weight.
