Former IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods has spoken of the respect he has for newly-minted WBC 140lbs king Dalton Smith.
Smith, a fellow Sheffield fighter, has talked of his admiration for the often-unheralded Woods, who boxed the likes of Roy Jones, Glen Johnson, Antonio Tarver and Julio Gonzalez in his stellar career.
Woods wrapped it up in 2009 after 42 wins against five losses and a draw with 25 early wins.
Smith won his world title with an early Fight of the Year five-round war with Subriel Matias in New York.
Woods and Smith were together at a Sheffield Wednesday soccer match last weekend and they went for drinks afterward.
“Dalton’s a top kid,” said Woods.
“He just won the WBC [title] in America, there aren’t many English kids that do that. I tried three times! But he’s done it. And what a performance. The first three rounds were going well and then after the fourth he had to take it to him, and he [Smith] said he thought he had to stand with him. And it was a great finish, wasn’t it? Three right hands and bang.”
The three title losses Woods refers to came against Jones, Tarver, and Tavoris Cloud.
“It was brilliant,” Woods reflected. “I was buzzing for him. Sheffield’s always been a city where they’ve always talked about the Ingles, Ingles, Ingles. My career was Ingles, Ingles, Ingles, and now you’ve got Dalton doing that and his dad [trainer Grant Smith]’s been with him since day one, since the amateurs, so it’s unbelievable.”
Woods has a son, Jude, 20, who is a late starter in boxing, and toward the end of his career, Woods was being linked to a fight with Welsh star Joe Calzaghe.
That never happened, and Woods wonders whether the fight between Smith and domestic rival Adam Azim, already debated for two years, will ever happen.
“I think he’s a brilliant fighter, I really rate Azim,” said Woods. “I think his last fight [stopping Kurt Scoby] was a really good fight. Is it one of them fights that’s never going to happen? Is someone going to lose before then? I don’t know when they would put that fight on. Would they let Dalton have a defense first? I don’t know what they’re going to wait for. Are they going to wait for Azim to win a title? I’d try to get a couple of defenses in if I was him [Smith]. See what Azim’s doing. But he [Azim’s]’s got to fight one of the top fighters [first].”
Azim fights Gustavo Lemos on January 31, and Smith’s mandatory contender is Alberto Puello, who lost the title in a close fight with Matias.
Woods has been watching Puello and believes him to be a tougher opponent than Matias, but still favors Smith to come out victorious if that fight is made.
The only thing going against Smith, said Woods, was that his title win happened on the same weekend that the new movie Giant came out, which starred Pierce Brosnan as Sheffield training guru Brendan Ingle and documented his tumultuous relationship with star student Naseem Hamed.
“I feel a bit sad because all this Naseem hype about his film has overshadowed it a bit,” Woods said. “Everybody’s been talking about Naseem’s film and how good or how bad it is, when the people should be talking about Dalton Smith.”
For Woods, however, the Matias fight will not be the pinnacle for his fellow Sheffield world champion.
“It can get better than that,” he insisted. “The other champions have bigger names than Matias. I think it can get bigger and there are bigger fights for him. That was his debut in America, and finishing it like he did, I was shocked. I’d seen Matias before and I’d thought Dalton would win by counterpunching but not in that style. I thought he’d outbox him and then, watching the fight and listening to the commentators, I thought, ‘This can’t go the distance because he’s not going to get the decision here.’”
