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Fight Academy will present three genuine world title fights on a single night on May 13 with IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods facing Australian Jason DeLisle in a rematch of a 2004 war, at Ponds Forge Arena, Sheffield, Ricky Hatton tops a double-header card in Boston when he collides with WBA welterweight boss Luis Collazo in the main event in the USA.
However, staging twin world championship shows on either side of the Atlantic is a bitter sweet success for promoter Dennis Hobson, who has previously been there for every one of Woods’s 42 professional fights.
Indeed, the May 13 will be the Sheffield couple’s “first night apart“.
Hobson admitted: “I’m proud that after just four years Fight Academy is capable of delivering two shows like we are on May 13. But, to be honest, it is bittersweet because for the first time I won’t be in Clinton’s corner.
“Clinton is family to me – we are very close. We started in boxing together, just two mates, two boxing fans, who wanted to get fit so we went to the gym together. We both got fit but Clinton discovered he had real talent and I became his manager.
“We“ve won British, Commonwealth, European and now the World title together and I wish I could be there for this rematch with DeLisle. Clinton nearly gave me a heart attack in the last fight with DeLisle (October 2004) when he got put down in the first round, and I“ll have butterflies in my stomach when I“m in America when Clinton is fighting.”
Champion Woods said: “When he first started promoting, Dennis never would have dreamed of putting two world title shows on in two countries on the one night. Now he’s one of the top promoters out there. He’s helped me achieve my boyhood dream of becoming world champion and he’ll help me again to become the No.1 in the entire division, so I can’t begrudge him this. I’ve took the mickey out of him – saying he’s “gone Hollywood’ because he’s jetting off and leaving me – but I know he has to do it.
“It’s a massive thing for him, promoting in America. And while it’ll be strange not hearing the sweet nothings he says every fight, and watching him get more nervous than me, I’m very happy for him. He’s worked hard and he deserves this.”
Hobson’s pride in his fellow Sheffielder is obvious. He said: “For me, Clinton’s one of the most inspirational fighters in British boxing. He wasn’t born with enormous natural talent, like a Roy Jones Junior or Floyd Mayweather, but he’s become the champion of the world through sheer effort, hard work and willpower and in some ways that’s even more impressive.
“Every time Clinton’s supposed to have reached his level, at Commonwealth, British, European, world top 15, world top 10 and now World Champion, he’s forced himself to improve even more and taken himself to the next level.”
Hobson says Woods can improve still further and become even more than a world title holder.
He said: “Hopefully, Clinton does a number on DeLisle and then he will fight Glen Johnson – perhaps on a huge card in America in the summer – and goes from being World champion to the undisputed No. light heavyweight in the world. That“s the next milestone for the fighter who turned pro just for an excuse to stay fit!”
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The Sheffield bill will be presented by Dennis Hobson and Robert Waterman’s Fight Academy and will be screened live as part of Sky Box Office’s huge live coverage May 13. Tickets: 01142 560
The Boston card will be co-promoted by Fight Academy and Banner Promotion, in association with Don King Productions. It too will be part of the Sky Box Office event and will be broadcast live in the US by HBO.
