There is something exciting happening in the lighter weight classes and Alex Winwood wants in.

The 26-year-old strawweight contender from Mandurah in Western Australia has watched with interest as international focus has slowly shifted to the smaller men of boxing largely due to the Japanese renaissance led by multi-weight world champion Naoya Inoue.

Winwood (4-0, 2 KOs) is now just one win away from a shot at the WBC 105-pound belt. In his way is 30-year-old Filipino southpaw Joey Canoy (20-5-2, 12 KOs) who he will face at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia on June 12.

Winwood sees Inoue’s blueprint to success as something worth emulating.

“That’s obviously the pathway that Inoue started with,” said Winwood to The Ring about starting at the lighter weights. “He began at light fly and he’s captured every belt on the way through. It just goes to show that even though you’re down at the lower weights, it doesn’t mean that they don’t hit hard or that they’re not exciting fighters.

“Inoue is arguably the most exciting fighter on the planet right now. His success really has brought that limelight down to the smaller weight classes and I’m glad that I’ve come in at the right time to capture some of that attention.”

Canoy is an established player in the lighter divisions. He claimed the scalp of current WBC titleholder Melvin Jerusalem on points in 2017 and held fellow contender ArAr Andales to a majority draw two years ago. Canoy has a dangerous offense predicated on throwing punches in bunches and can land explosive counter shots as well.

“He’s a pretty conventional southpaw from the Philippines,” said Winwood, who is ranked in the top five by the WBC, WBO and IBF. “A lot of them box very similar to him. He likes to throw his punches in a flurry, kind of like [Manny] Pacquiao. He’s fast on his feet when he wants to be and has a bit of pop, a bit of bang, and likes to let ’em go.”

Winwood added that while Canoy’s offense is flashy and effective, his defense can be lacking.

“I think he gets a little bit complacent in terms of who he’s been fighting,” he explained. “He thinks he can sit on the ropes and be a bit lazy at times. I’m going to exploit every bit of that.”

Southpaws are nothing new for the 2020 Tokyo Olympian. Two of his four professional opponents – Tibo Monabesa and Cris Ganoza – have been left handers. Indonesian Monabesa was stopped in four frames. Ganoza of the Philippines lost a unanimous decision. Neither of them won a round.

“We’ve been working on a pretty decent game plan for southpaws for a few fights now,” said Winwood. “In the last couple of camps we’ve found what works for me against a southpaw and what we can exploit, so were going to take that into this fight.

“Obviously like you’ve been saying, Canoy’s defense can be a bit open at times, so there’s a couple of new tactics that we’ve been working on that we’re looking forward to displaying.”

Canoy was seen as the perfect preparation for a shot at WBC champion Yudai Shigeoka (8-1, 5 KOs) before the 26-year-old Japanese lefty lost his belt to crafty Filipino Melvin Jerusalem (22-3, 12KOs) by split decision in Nagoya, Japan late last month.

“We had just been looking at the world champions but all these champions, apart from Jerusalem who upset the applecart, were about 5’2″, 5’3″ and a southpaw and Canoy’s the same,” said Winwood’s manager Tony Tolj.

“We thought that was the ultimate preparation to go on to that next level. And plus he’s had a victory over Jerusalem as well, so it’s a good litmus test for Alex just to see how he is coming along. He’s only had the four pro fights, whereas Canoy has had 27.”

Jerusalem entered the Shigeoka fight as the underdog but shocked the local crowd when he dropped the champion with a counter right hand in the third round. The challenger repeated the treatment in the sixth round with the same punch, going on to edge the bout on the scorecards 114-112, 114-112 and 113-114.

Japan has proven to be a happy hunting ground for Jerusalem. In January last year he knocked out Masataka Taniguchi in two rounds to lift the WBO title. Still, the victory over Shigeoka surprised Winwood.

“I thought that Yudai would come away with the goods,” said Winwood. “Jerusalem obviously came and brought another upset to Japan to capture his second world title. It was not what I expected to happen. Now you’ve got an orthodox fighter as the champion rather than all these southpaws that are going about.”

Winwood says he doesn’t care who he faces for the title, but it better happen soon. It has been a long stated goal of the Winwood camp to surpass Jeff Fenech’s Australian record of winning a world title in the least number of fights. That would require Winwood to box for a world title and win in his very next bout after Canoy.

Losing his next fight is simply not an option.

“Pretty much the mindset I’ve had my whole pro career is that every fight is a world title for me,” said Winwood. “If I want to achieve this fast-track to a world title, I can’t lose. I understand that every opponent overshadows the opponent before. It really goes to show just how much I am improving when you see me in each fight against someone who has a lot more experience.”

Tolj, who also manages WBO bantamweight champion Jason Moloney and junior bantamweight contender Andrew Moloney, admits that the path to a world title shot in the smaller weight divisions is often quicker, but no less fraught with danger.

“A lot of the time they’ve got to leap from a certain level of fighter in that division to the contenders to the champions very quickly,” said Tolj. “But Alex just keep rising to every level that we put in front of him and by all reports he’s just on fire in training camp as well, so it’s exciting times ahead.”

The lighter weight classes rarely get the recognition they deserve despite the obvious class of boxers competing at 122-pounds and below. This has fortunately changed in the Inoue era with fans increasing looking down the weight scale for the next international superstar who can transcend the sport as they collect world titles in multiple weight divisions.

Strawweight is where it all began for Nicaraguan legend Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, while Hall of Famer Ricardo ‘Finito’ Lopez carved out his legend at 105-pounds before closing out his career at junior flyweight. Fellow Hall of Famer Ivan Calderon followed in his footsteps and long-reigning world titleholder Kazuto Ioka picked up his first world championship belts in boxing’s lightest weight class.

If you want speed, skill and explosive knockouts, look south. The little big men of the sport deliver it in spades and Winwood believes he fits right in.

“When I first started, the buzz around the strawweight wasn’t as prevalent as it is today because you had all the old champions holding the belts,” said Winwood. “There were a couple of Thais and South Africans so there wasn’t too much going on when I first transitioned down to that weight class. But all of a sudden, within 12 months, the belts had been moved around a fair few times and now you’ve got the Americans getting a belt, two Japanese brothers, even though one of them just lost.

“It’s obviously gone to show that there is a lot of really good talent down at the lighter weights, where I think there wasn’t enough attention being paid to it before because there weren’t any Westerners fighting at the lower weight classes. That’s now changed.”

The Winwood vs Canoy bout will be broadcast live in Australia on Stan Sport as part of the “Uncaged” pay-per-view headlined by Australian heavyweight champion Kris Terzievski vs. former UFC fighter Tyson Pedro in his boxing debut.