By Terence Dooley
Sheffield’s Clinton Woods, now 39-3-1 (24), sparkled in impressive fashion by overpowering the rugged Jason Delisle, now 18-5-2 (9), in six largely one-sided rounds in Sheffield. Woods also made a statement in light of the upcoming novelty fight between the man generally considered king, Antonio Tarver, and a blown-up middleweight riding a losing streak in Bernard Hopkins.
The durable Delisle, fighting out of Sydney Australia, impressed this writer by bounding out to the strains of the Stones hit “Gimme Shelter” but it was Woods who forced the pace of the fight and left Jason looking for safe haven on the ropes in the sixth round before finishing him off impressively.
When the two men last fought both were contenders trying to earn a shot at the title and Delisle gave Woods a massive scare in the first round before being stopped in the final stanza. This time Woods showed the improvement one expects in a champion by forcing the intervention of referee Dave Parris in round six. Woods refused to give Delisle sanctuary from the blows that came fast and heavy as the rust from an eight-month hiatus was shed from his fists.
At 12st 7lbs Clinton used his 1lbs weight advantage early on as he came in behind a jab that set the tempo for the occasional, quick, left hook.
A right uppercut ripped in early from Woods and he set forth his mastery of that blow by sending another uppercut up and under as the man from down under thundered forwards throwing right hands to the body.
Effective single left hooks from the champion sharply underlined the difference in class. Jason was all endeavour yet did not box clever in the first round and his unscientific approach gave Woods the chance to pot-shot with single blows as he shook off the split second loss of timing his layoff had caused. By the end of the round Clinton had sussed out the range impressively. In terms of class it was already a forlorn task for the mullet-haired antipode.
The softening up process continued in round two as again the right hand and left hook went to work. Clinton was now doubling up on his success with the jab. Delisle was all agricultural aggression and it was clear that he had a certain rough confidence bestowed on him when he had put Clinton down in the first round of their prior fight. Jason opened up in this round yet Clinton seemed relaxed when parrying and slipping along the ropes before catching Jason with a sequence of blows.
In the last thirty seconds Clinton brought his combination punching into the fight and threw off the final signs of rust before punctuating the final seconds of the round with a doubled-up jab and right hands to the head and body.
It was disconcerting to see Clinton breathing heavily in the third but his punching remained crisp and concise throughout the round. Woods was turning his shoulder into every shot yet Delisle was dogmatically sticking to his Sisyphean task.
Jason came out for the fourth with a mean right hand that went high and wide before impacting on the shoulder of Woods, he then adjusted his range before clumping in a clean right hand followed by a left hook that was blocked by Woods.
I was looking for signs of fatigue in Woods and thought I saw one as he started to fall short with his jab, he was no longer turning into it and this is a sure sign that a fighter is feeling tired. Jason’s fighting replicated his hairstyle, no frills but a certain hint of defiance in the face of superior stylistic considerations. The challenger had halted the decline, and fractured Woods’ shine, by taking the round.
On the drive through the Pennines I’d been struck by the agriculture of the country and how it broke into urbanity when we reached the decaying steel factories that once made Sheffield famous. This fight was now a contrast between aggressive Australian agriculture and sophisticated Sheffield steel.
In the fifth Woods was walking into the odd clinch and suddenly decided to regroup on the back foot where he worked expertly.
Delisle again tried to attack the body and fielded the return fire provided by Woods before pitching his own rough and ready attack. Clinton landed the better shots once again and towards the end he dipped his knees before crashing a one-two onto the chin of Delisle. Delisle was throwing crude swings and it was a case of throwing rocks to pierce a tanks armour.
Jason rumbled on in round six but the game was up and Woods served noticed by going under the guard of Delisle with a right to the body. A right uppercut flashed off the chin off Delisle. Clinton Woods sent the sweat spraying by backing Delisle up with quality shots, he seemed to sense that he had paid enough investments on his fight winning dividend and forced Delisle onto the back foot.
To his credit Jason stood firm but was manoeuvred along the canvas and onto two right uppercuts and a clipping left hand that left him crumpled into the supporting strands of the ropes. A right hand was dipped into the body as Woods continued to punch and as Jason’s head rolled from the shots, referee Dave Parris had seen enough and called the bout off at 1:55 of the round.
When Jason Delisle was hurt he did not cover-up he opened up and his attack was hustle and bustle throughout, on the other hand Woods was mostly rhythm and flow and the final assault highlighted the gulf in class between champion and challenger. Those uppercuts and left hooks had been too much for Delisle and the fact that the fight went to the sixth was a positive reflection of the size of his heart, unfortunately the size of the task before him had been greater still.
Woods was jubilant afterwards and Boxing Scene caught up with him in the dressing room to ask him about the fight: “I felt confident going in and got my jab working, I just seemed to be hurting him with the jab. In the first two rounds I seemed to hurt him a few times and felt the fight move my way. I felt I’d get him by the fourth or fifth round and in the sixth round I hit him with a great right hook, I felt him wobble and lined him up with an uppercut and a left hand. I was on top in the first four rounds and I felt so in control I was enjoying myself, especially when I sat on the ropes. He wasn’t catching me; he knew that because he actually sat back when I got to the ropes and was lining him up for the shots. I hit him with some massive shots. It was the right hooks hurting him and I lined up the right uppercut right to the chin. He was a tough kid, a great kid as well.”
With the Ricky Hatton-Luis Collazo fight just hours away I asked Woods if he plans to gatecrash the USA: “My next should be with Glen Johnson and if it goes to purse bids I’d be happy to go over there (America) but Sheffield and my people are here. I feel I’m the best light heavyweight in the world and want to prove it. I’m three or four times better since the last time I fought Glenn, I’m a totally different fighter.”
Woods further elaborated why he felt he was not the same fighter who fought Johnson: “You can see now that I’m a different fighter. I was fighting weak (in the past) and not talking to doctors, I had things wrong with me and kept things quiet. I had an iron deficiency and that is all sorted out now, I’m a different fighter and have won the world title and defended it twice since then. How I got through the second fight with Johnson I’ll never now. I thought about quitting boxing, I was tired all the time, falling asleep all the time. You can see it on TV (in the second fight) when I came back after the second round and asked what round it was, I was knackered, knackered. You can’t be like that against Glen. I was not hurt but tired. As soon as I got this title I asked Dennis to get me Johnson. I want Johnson.”