Calzaghe turns down Woods offer

Super middleweight king Joe Calzaghe has allegedly turned down a £1m offer to fight Sheffield's IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods.

But Woods will defend his world title against Australia's Jason DeLisle, who he stopped in 2004, on 13 May.

Woods' promoter Dennis Hobson said: "We were offering Calzaghe more than he'd ever been paid in his career before.

"We were prepared to co-promote and make the fight for Wales. If that's not good enough, what is?"

Calzaghe's promoter Frank Warren has pencilled in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 8 July for his charge's next fight, with American legend Roy Jones Jr a possible opponent.

Woods fights DeLisle on the same night as his stable-mate Ricky Hatton challenges Luis Collazo for the WBA welterweight crown in Boston.


He's got a lot of heart and the knockdown will give him confidence, but I will really do a number on him
Clinton Woods

Woods won his last fight with DeLisle, an world-title eliminator, on a 12th round stoppage, but was dropped in the opening round.

"I've got my mandatory against Glen Johnson coming up and I didn't want to go into that fight having not fought since I beat Julio Gonzalez last September.

"Jason DeLisle has been shouting his mouth off to anyone who'd listen that he nearly knocked me out in the first fight, so don't sing it, Jason - bring it!


Boxing skills:
Clinton Woods on punching

"He's got a lot of heart and the knockdown will give him confidence, but I will really do a number on him."

Calzaghe, meanwhile, is a man in demand, with pound-for-pound great Ronald 'Winky' Wright recently suggesting that he is keen on a showdown.

Wright meets Jermain Taylor for the WBO and WBC middleweight titles on 17 June in Memphis.

The Floridian comes from the same town (St Petersburg) as Lacy and trains in the same stable and is keen to exact revenge for the beating his friend took

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/4861904.stm