Jeff Day

04.09 - It would likely be the biggest upset since David slew Goliath. Unfortunately, this Saturday night in Portland, Oregon, Britain's Clinton Woods will face the world's premier fighter, Roy Jones, wearing boxing gloves and not a sling containing stone!

It has been said that if Woods was somehow to conjure up a victory, it would rank with other great British upsets like Lloyd Honeyghan's 1986 win over World welterweight champion Don Curry in Atlantic City, or even Randolph Turpin's defeat of the incomparable Sugar Ray Robinson in London way back in July 1951 to win the World middleweight title.

In my view, a Clinton win would be an even bigger shock than those two great moments in British boxing history. Consider: Curry was known to be having a real struggle to make the welterweight limit and never fought at the weight again and Honeyghan proved himself a fine champion; In Robinson's case, he was busy on his "European tour", and had fought just over a week earlier before taking on the un-fancied Englishman and was already the wrong side of 30.

However, Jones appears to be at the very peak of his powers, and it seems his challenger has neither the ring technique nor even a puncher's chance of upsetting the champion. That is not to say that Clinton is a bad fighter; he is certainly not. Still, even when the fight was mooted to take place in Britain, it still seemed a gargantuan task for the man from Sheffield.

If Woods had the power, pound for pound, of his more illustrious fellow Yorkshireman, Naseem Hamed, you could perhaps make a case for a Woods win, although even that could be seen as clutching straws in the extreme.

Still, he must be afforded respect for his courage and desire to share a ring with the mercurial Jones. He has certainly spoken confidently about the fight and says he will not be overawed. The challenger comes into the fight with a statistically impressive 32-1 (18 inside schedule) record and
is the former British, Commonwealth and European light-heavyweight champion. (For the record he has also held the Commonwealth super-middleweight title).

Clinton, 30, is the WBC's number one challenger and has been for some time. A projected eliminator with Michael Nunn was postponed for varying reasons and never happened, even though victory over the former World middleweight king would hardly have prepared him for the task he faces this Saturday.

Then, another American, Greg Wright was pencilled in to face Woods in an eliminator. However, he could not leave the USA, as he owed money in child support payments.

When you also consider that during this period Jones has been talking of fights with Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins, Vasiliy Jirov and even James 'Buster' Douglas, it is a great compliment to Clinton that he has not given the game up!

Woods made his professional debut on 17 November 1994 against Earl Ling. By a curious quirk of fate, the very next evening, Roy had his 'coming out' fight with his victory over James Toney, who at the time was considered boxing's top man pound for pound!

Clinton was fed the usual British suspects, then was given a shot at the vacant Commonwealth super-middleweight championship against the rugged Mark Baker in London on 6 December 1997. It was a gruelling fight, won by Woods on points.

Unfortunately, nearly four months later, Clinton then suffered what remains his only defeat, when struggling to make the 168lbs required, he lost his title to future WBO title challenger David Starie on points. This looks even worse when you consider the lacklustre, clutch-filled fight Starie had when making his challenge to Joe Calzaghe nearly two years later.

Whatever, two wins later, and Clinton challenged veteran Crawford Ashley for the British, Commonwealth and European light-heavyweight titles. Ashley, though 34 at the time of the bout, was vastly experienced. He had previously made unsuccessful challenges for WBA titles at super-middleweight and light-heavyweight against Michael Nunn and Virgil Hill respectively.

Ashley, a pro since 1987, found Woods in inspired form this March 1999 night in Manchester. Ashley was taken apart by the eighth and Woods was a triple champion.

In his first defence of the Commonwealth belt, the champion was wobbled by New Zealand's Sam Leuii before retaining in the sixth. His next defence was against a fighter from Trinidad called John Lennox Lewis! Lewis lasted into the tenth. It should be noted that Lewis was beaten two fights later by WBC super-middleweight boss Eric Lucas in six.

European title wins followed against Juan Nelongo Perez and Ole Klemetsen in February and March 2000 respectively.

While the aforementioned fights with Michael Nunn and Greg Wright were off, then on, then off again, Woods kept busy with wins over fellow Brits Greg Scott-Briggs, Ali Forbes (for the WBC International trinket) and Paul Bonson.

Clinton then relinquished his three championships to concentrate on obtaining a shot at Roy Jones.

At last, Clinton was within touching distance of a World title shot, but first he had to deal with Italian based Ugandan Yawe Davis. Davis was 39, but always in great shape. He pushed the Englishman hard, but Clinton got the 12 round points win that he needed in Sheffield on 13 September 2001, in what was a WBC final elimination contest.

Curiously, although Davis had annexed Clinton's vacated European title, their fight wasn't recognised by the European Boxing Union as for the title. To make matters worse, when Clinton won, Davis was allowed to keep the European title despite the defeat suffered under championship conditions!

Woods has had the one contest since, a routine third round stoppage of Clint Johnson on 16 March 2002. It is unlikely that any bout throughout his career can have possibly readied him Saturday's acid test.

Roy Jones has been the best fighter of the last ten years without any shadow of a doubt. Since he beat Bernard Hopkins in 1993 to become IBF middleweight champion, he has barely lost a round, much less a fight. The only loss on his record, the ninth round disqualification loss to Montell Griffin, was brutally revenged in one round.

At 33, Jones has yet to show signs of slipping: the reflexes look very much in tact and the legs seem to carry him without the look of a fighter on the slide.

When Jones beat James Toney in November 1994, he beat a man generally considered one of the best, if not the best, pound for pound fighters in the world. Think about some of the boxers that have been considered the best fighters in the world during the last decade: Toney, Julio Cesar Chavez, Pernell Whittaker, Terry Norris, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad. All have either retired or are seemingly past their very best.

Because of Jones' apparent reluctance to take on the very best, people should not assume he would be unable to beat any man put in front of him including his WBO counterpart Dariusz Michalczewski.

It may hurt the old-timers, you know, the ones that say that modern day fighters would be no match for the men of yesterday. The reality is, in the case of Jones, he would have been competitive with any light-heavyweight champion in history, including Conn, Moore, Foster and Spinks. He may well have beaten them all, but that, of course, we will never know.

Britain's best light-heavyweights: Bob Fitzsimmons, Freddie Mills, John Conteh, Chris Finnegan and Dennis Andries, would have all failed against the American and Woods, a decent fighter though he is, is not in the same league as any of his aforementioned countryman.

I hope that Clinton gives it his best shot, does not get badly beaten up and that Roy seriously under-estimates his latest challenger. Yet, even if all of this happens, I have to go for the champion to stop his brave challenger in round eight.