Watched Harding vs. Tarver 1 and then Woods vs. DeGale. I think its a decent matchup. I have Harding by close UD, bet it'd be a fun fight.
Harding by UD. Harding had much better skills but didn't have big power. Woods was a tough fighter - he would have made it competetive.
Watching Woods get carved up by Jones, and I can't help but find the most impressive thing in the fight being Woods' effort. Jones was vastly superior, knew it, and was on cruise control for 5 rounds. Woods had no defense for the speed and the hook around the left, but he kept trying, hard. Thats REALLY what being game is about.
I like Woods, know him personally but Harding at his best outboxes him very clearly. Woods in all fairness to him could really do a job against good pressure fighters like Gonzalez and Hoye but I thought Glen Johnson beat him all 3 times For the record Calzaghe avoided Woods, but would have beaten him easily if they fought
One of the most underrated fights of the last decade is the third tussle between Johnson and Woods. I scored it a draw, and its cracking good fun. A perfect picture of when two rugged, determined, pressure/swarmers go at it and refuse to adjust to something different then what they like to do. It's like they refuse to give ground and say that they aren't, in fact, the better grinder than the other guy. Its not often you see two world class guys with the same damn styles fight, so I always find it a treat.
Certainly had that 1 to Johnson, close but clear as did many of the Brit fans watching. Thought Woods was as much counter puncher as pressure fighter, for much of his contests. Technically he was very solid but very left handed
I can certainly see scoring it for Johnson, and I remember plenty did. That was a fun fight, but very close. Woods could counter, but Johnson can also box. In that fight, they were both in their forward gears. It was a blast.
He signed to fight him but pulled out injured 2-3 times, so Johnson signed to fight Jones Jr. The injuries were a tad suspect and it was more likely it was personal issues with his divorce. His career was considered over then. He initially wanted to move up to LHW to face Gonzalez when Gonzalez was WBO champ Calzaghe had the right to demand the fight having 10+ WBO defences. When Gonzalez lost to Erdei though he changed his mind and went after Johnson instead His father also revealed after the fight that he wanted to pull out of the Jeff Lacy fight. I'm not sure if it was a lack of confidence with Joe or he just didn't want to fight with niggles. I think he was on cautious side, he definitely didn't want Dawson or Pavlik when they were the natural fights and even made up some unlikely obscure story about Pavlik turning down a fight before Pavlik was champion. Yes it was a nice in fight, Johnson did have the better defence and his shorter punches seemed to get their first for my money What are your recollections of Harding, I heard his shoulder was never the same after damaging it
