Clinton Woods is the quiet man of British boxing – not dissimilar to Joe Calzaghe in many ways. Neither of them likes to stand in front of the media, wind up their lips and go into overdrive when selling a fight.

Woods, from Dennis Hobson's Fight Academy stable, has a quiet demeanour, is one of the lads, but is full of his native Sheffield steel. He is on the cusp of doing exactly what Calzaghe did, too, in leaving the shadows to come into the full glare of the British public...

In April, a week before Calzaghe fights Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas, Woods meets Antonio Tarver in Tampa.

It is a week in which three great light-heavyweight fights will take place, with Chad Dawson meeting Glen Johnson on the Woods/Tarver undercard. British boxing is still on the rise, and along the line, there is the great prospect of Calzaghe and Woods fighting each other. Their respective promoters, Frank Warren and Dennis Hobson, have already been in talks three times without contracts being finalised, and it is a fight which all parties, I'm sure, will make within the next 12 to 15 months.

Both men's fights will be shown by broadcasters Setanta, on Apr 12 and Apr 19 respectively, with the Irish sports broadcasters having launched fully into boxing coverage. That has coincided, it is worth noting, with the new golden age of British boxing. Setanta can only be good for the sport, with ITV and Sky making it three players in the market.

I went up to see Clinton Woods at the South Yorks Boxing Academy in Gleadless, Sheffield, earlier this week (it is a big room next to a couple of shops in a council estate – spit and sawdust place, great atmosphere) as Clint made his final preparations to take on the man who fought Rocky Balboa in his last movie. Yes, Tarver turned actor, and has now come back to boxing. This is a tough, tough fight for Woods and if he comes through it, he deserves great recognition.

Six years ago, Woods suffered a setback when he lost to Roy Jones, in Portland, Oregon. It was too early in his career, in reality, for him to make a serious challenge, but as he admitted this week 500,000 US dollars were on the table and he couldn't say no. He was stopped by Jones, but has no regrets about taking the fight. It's funny how discussions in boxing gyms go at times.

Woods only took boxing up "to get fit". He explained: "I still sometimes find it hard to believe I'm in this position because I only took up boxing to keep fit and I don't even know why I turned professional really. But I took my chances and here I am. I'm not scared of Tarver but I know I'm going to have to go out there and put the pressure on him to win the fight. I'm the away fighter in Tampa, so I might not get any favours from the judges. I'm going to have to leave them in no doubt at all who the winner is."

We digressed into him telling us how he has built a tree house for his son, and has spent "loads on tools". It was a funny few minutes, but one of the pleasures of writing about boxing has always been the accessibility to fighters. That said, getting too close to your subjects is never a good thing.

On another note, Woods, who was working ringside for American broadcasters Showtime at the 02 Arena last Saturday night, believes he saw a future world heavyweight champion while commenting on David Haye's five-minute destruction of Enzo Maccarinelli for three of the world's four cruiserweight titles.

Woods, who faces the toughest prospect of his career with former champion Tarver, said yesterday: "I must have watched that fight about 20 times and his speed was unbelievable. He was absolutely fantastic and he is definitely the next big thing. Who is going to beat him with that kind of speed? Obviously there is still the question of how he is going to do against guys who are two stones heavier and massive hitters like Wladimir Klitschko. But the speed and strength Haye has got is phenomenal."