Boxing Info: Clinton Woods ready to give Glen Johnson a good Hyde-ing

Few world champion boxers can be as friendly and easygoing as IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods. The Sheffield box-puncher prides himself on his unpretentious working class roots, and is the type of fighter who greets autographs hunters with a handshake and almost embarrassed smile.

However, with his crucial rubber match with Glen Johnson now just days away, Woods’s personality has apparently transformed in the manner of a certain character from a Robert Louis Stevenson novel.

Trainer Richard Poxon said: “It is exactly like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide. Clinton and I are mates, and usually he’s great to be around in the gym. He always works very hard but at the same time he is usually cracking jokes and playing practical jokes on everyone. He’s usually the jester of the gym.

“But Clinton Woods hasn’t even turned up for this training camp for this fight – he’s sent his evil twin instead. The first thing he did on day one of the camp was insist that the gym doors be locked when he trains and, day in day out since then, he’s got meaner and moodier.

“It’s got to the point this last few days to where I feel like I’m getting locked in overnight with Hannibal Lector.”

However, Poxon said: “But the work I’m getting out of Clinton has been even more scary than his new personality. I can’t tell you how up for this fight he is. He’s really been bashing his sparring partners up. I wanted to use some middleweights in there against him, to (replicate) Johnson’s pressure, but I had to put cruisers in there instead. It just wouldn’t be fair to put smaller fighters with him, the mood he’s in.”

Poxon added that Woods has vowed to not only beat Johnson this time, but to produce a performance which will put his claims to be the No.1 light heavyweight in the world beyond question.

“If Johnson tries to box Clinton on Saturday he’ll have his head caved in,” the trainer said flatly. “He cannot outbox Clinton on the jab and he can’t win this fight at long range. Clinton will shell him from a distance all night. Johnson has to do exactly what he did in the first two fight, exactly what he did with Roy Jones and Antonio Tarver, he has to come in like a bull in a china shop.

“But that’s won’t get it done this time. This will be a war, but “the evil twin’ will win!”