Clinton Woods - punching masterclass

Clinton Woods on boxing combinations

By Ben Dirs in Bolton

Woods defended his IBF crown for a third time in Bolton

It was ironic that on the night Clinton Woods finally came to the attention of the wider British public he should enter the ring accompanied by The Jam's 'Going Underground'.

For Woods had spent the previous 14 years toiling beneath the surface of the nation's consciousness, laying the foundations for his career-defining victory over Jamaican Glen Johnson at the Bolton Arena on Saturday.

He has tunnelled a long way, from a wild young man in Sheffield with a "beer belly and breasts hanging down to the ground" to the world's number one light heavyweight.

"I didn't start boxing to win anything," said Woods. "I started boxing again at 21 to turn my life around. All I was doing at the time was community service.

"I just went down to Dennis' [Hobson, Woods' manager] gym and my trainer at the time just kept saying to me, 'you ought to turn pro'.

"He used to say to people I'd be British champion and I'd be embarrassed. But now 13 years later, and I've won everything."

Let's just see if they call me number one - I bet they don't, but I should be Clinton Woods

But all that graft for so little acclaim still rankles, even in the aftermath of his finest hour, a stirring third defence of his IBF title against a man to whom he had drawn with and lost to previously.

"They were saying beforehand that Glen Johnson was the number one light heavyweight, but let's just see if they call me number one," said Woods.

"I bet they don't, but I should be. I've beaten the guy who's beaten everybody - Roy Jones, Antonio Tarver. I beat the man who beat the men."

Before the fight, Woods came down with Stan Mortensen syndrome, complaining that Wales' super middleweight king Joe Calzaghe, who had been lined up for a lucrative bout with Johnson, was nicking all the headlines.

It was Mortensen who scored a hat-trick for Blackpool in the 1953 FA Cup final, only for the match to be dubbed the 'Matthews Final' after his iconic team-mate Stan.

Hobson will now sit down with Calzaghe's promoter Frank Warren and try to hammer out a deal for a British super-fight next year, which is easier said than done.

The rival power-brokers don't get on, an enmity which stems from Ricky Hatton's defection from Warren to Hobson last year, and Woods, with a public show of world-weary fatalism, says he's not too bothered if the match comes off or not.

He does have other options, with Hobson confident he can lure fading legend Jones, who humiliated Woods in 2002, into a rematch.

Woods' stable-mate Ricky Hatton was on hand to help in Bolton

But you suspect he would like nothing more than to bring British boxing's golden boy crashing down to earth before hanging up his gloves for good.

For the next few weeks, however, Woods can have a few scoops with his new mate Hatton and compare notes on what it takes to be a great British champion.

For there was greatness in Woods' performance against the gnarled Johnson, 12 rounds of brute determination that would have impressed the locals, who have seen their fair share of attritional wars over the road at the Reebok Stadium in recent years.

It was two-weight world champion Hatton, who was on Woods' spit bucket on Saturday, who gave his pal a timely reminder as to just how far he had come and what was at stake if he lost against Johnson.

"When I had a bad ninth round he gave me a right gobful," said Woods.

"He said, 'do you want to go back to signing on next week or going back to plastering?'

"I don't want to be going back to plastering just yet. Maybe in a few years time, when I've packed boxing in."