By Mark Vester
Sheffield, England - Clinton Woods (43-1, 34KOs) won a unanimous decision over Julio Gonzalez (41-4, 25KOs) to retain the IBF light heavyweight title. The scores were 117-111, 115-113 and 116-112.
Appearing for the first time since recovering from torn tendons that knocked him off the Hatton-Castillo undercard in June, Woods appeared to be in fine form as he dictated the pace at the start and began to take the fight to Gonzalez in the later rounds.
Gonzalez was tentative in the early going, but the Mexican inside of him came out in the fourth, and the two began to brawl at a much quicker pace for the remainder of the fight.
In what many are calling a fight of the year contender, the two fighters landed a high level of power punches and took a lot of punishment as the fight wore on. Gonzalez was cut around his right eye in the eleventh as Woods rallied for a knockout. The crowd at the Hallam FM Arena stood on their feet and showed their appreciation to both men for the action they witnessed.
"It was a tough fight, and I can't believe what a tough fighter Gonzalez is. I thought I was going to stop him in the 11th round - but somehow he stayed on his feet," Woods said.
