Clinton Woods
Clinton Woods ( born May 1, 1972 in Sheffield ) is a British boxer and former IBF world champion in the light heavyweight division.
Professional career
Clinton Woods began his professional career in 1994, first in the super middleweight division. In December 1997 he won the Commonwealth title in this weight class, but lost the belt in his first defense of the title by a point defeat to David Starie. After this first defeat, he moved to the light heavyweight division.
In 1999 he won the Commonwealth and the European title at light heavyweight. In 2001 he won in an eliminator of WBC and thus qualified for a fight against the world champion Roy Jones Jr. This fight was held in Portland on September 7, 2002. Woods was Jones but hopelessly outnumbered, so Woods' coach finally in the sixth round threw in the towel.
In 2003, Antonio Tarver the IBF title was denied because he did not fulfill his mandatory defense. Woods then got the opportunity to fight on November 7, 2003 against Jamaican Glen Johnson to the now vacant belt. The meeting ended in a draw, however, and so a rematch was scheduled three months later. This time, Johnson sat almost on points through and secured the title.
Even Johnson was stripped of his title again a little later, as he took up next against Tarver, instead of the mandatory challenger of the association. So Woods was allowed to again fight for the vacant belt and eventually won it on 4 March 2005 against Rico Hoye. In the following years he defended the title twice against, among others, the Michalczewski -slayer González and in a third duel against Glen Johnson. On April 12, 2008 Woods lost the IBF title by a clear point defeat to Antonio Tarver.
In February 2009, he defeated in an eliminator for the IBF mandatory challenger position of the Kosovo Albanians Elvir Muriqi on points. This he received on 28 August 2009 another chance to the, now vacant again to fight the IBF belt. He was defeated in this battle, however, the Us- Americans Tavoris Cloud after a unanimous points decision.