07.11.07 – By Andrew Wake: British local TV network Yorkshire television have reported that negotiations for a 175 pound match up between Sheffield’s International Boxing Federation champion Clinton Woods and pound for pound great Joe Calzaghe have begun and are at an advanced stage. “It’s a fight I definitely want,” Woods told Yorkshire TV’s interviewer “I feel confident I can beat him. I’d be the first guy to beat him and it’s a massive fight. It would be the battle of Britain. I’m the light heavyweight champion and he’s talking about coming up to my weight so let’s get it on..”
“I’d be a big underdog but a lot of people believe in me and I believe in myself. I know he looked good the other night against Kessler but Kessler isn’t Clinton Woods. It would be a different story when he gets in the ring with me.”
Personally I have been a big advocate of Clinton and, as stated recently in my article “Woods has the goods”, I believe that he could beat most of the current light heavyweight division and deserves more credit than he receives but Joe Calzaghe is an all together different proposition and I fail to see any way in which Woods (41 – 3 with 24 KOs) would be able to handle the Welshman’s speed and agility. For me Woods would be a simple way for Calzaghe to become a two weight champion to add another belt to his already glorious collection.
Woods said, “People keep underestimating me but I keep coming back with good performances. I think the better the fighter I’m against the better I fight so I need a big test against someone like Calzaghe and I’m confident I can beat him.”
“Me and Dennis (Hobson, his promoter) went to New York and American TV want to put me on. They’ve given us a date for a unification fight with Chad Dawson but the fight I want is with Calzaghe.”
As much as I like Clinton Woods I am very sceptical about the comments he made in this interview and, although it’s not impossible, I do not believe there is any truth in Yorkshire television’s claim that negotiations are at a progressed stage. For me the undefeated Italian Dragon has bigger fish to fry, and those fish are called Bernard Hopkins and Kelly Pavlik.