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| Clinton Woods the last man standing of a glorious generation |
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I remember Clinton Woods's last trip to Florida very well. It was a fun week, I was among a group of journalists given some tickets right behind home plate at the Tampa Bay Rays, the weather was glorious and so was a drive down to Fort De Soto Park, one of the greatest beaches I have ever set foot on. The fight was a disaster. It had been a high water mark in recent British boxing history. Woods, David Haye, Joe Calzaghe, Junior Witter and Gavin Rees were world champions, Alex Arthur was an interim world champion, Ricky Hatton was still an IBO champion. The Woods fight was the first of a fortnight of big American fights, shown on Setanta - the following week, in Las Vegas, Calzaghe was facing Bernard Hopkins. It all seems so long ago, it was less 16 months. None of those boxers are world champions now, we no longer have Setanta and even the Calzaghe era is over. Back then Joe was saying he would never do a celebrity dancing show - how things change. When Woods steps into the ring in at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, in Hollywood, Florida, tonight, it could be the last hurrah by his generation of champions. Tavoris Cloud is unbeaten, much younger and a hard puncher, but he's not really been tested. Similar maybe to Devon Alexander, who forced Witter to quit as he went in search of his old WBC light-welterweight title in California last month. Or maybe, similar to Rico Hoye, the man Woods finally won a world title against after three unsuccessful attempts. "Before he fought Clinton, some were making out Rico Hoye was the new Tommy Hearns," Dennis Hobson, Woods's promoter said. "I think Clinton is best when he is up against it, when there's that bit of fear." But doubts of that non-performance against Antonio Tarver still remain. It was one of the worst defences of a world title I had ever seen. Before the belief had been that Tarver was too old, that Woods's workrate would overwhelm him. But Woods allowed the American to box in his comfort zone, the Sheffield man seemed to freeze. Richard Poxon, Woods's former trainer who has recently taken up a job with Hatton Promotions, received a lot of blame for that fight. Boxer and trainer had certainly fallen out to some extent and Poxon was ejected in favour of Glyn Rhodes. Things went well in their first fight together in February, as he beat Elvir Muriqi in Jersey. That fight was an eliminator for the IBF's No 2 position, an impressive move by Hobson that enabled Woods to get the call when Chad Dawson gave up the title to instead pursue a rematch with Glen Johnson. "We took a chance that Dawson was going to relinquish, and it worked out," Hobson said. Now it is down to Woods. It is his third fight in the United States and must be his last chance at this level. On Saturday morning he will either be a two-time world champion or on his way to being an ex-boxer. http://timesonline.typepad.com/boxing/2009/08/woods.html |
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