Clinton Woods vs Antonio Tarver?

Woods was another in the seemingly endless production line of iron-chinned warriors from the British Isles. Quality fighter in his day and he harvested the scalps of some good fighters at domestic, Euro and world level. But obviously he lost his biggest fights to a juiced Roid (shockingly there was no testing for that fight even though Roid had already popped dirty 2 years earlier) and juiced Tarver. Very tough man though and he did well to achieve all he did considering the destructive lifestyle he was living in his late teen/early adult years

After showing a bit of promise in amateur boxing, you packed it in. There’s a bit in the book where you describe how you went down the wrong path, and it was a letter from your mother which eventually helped you to turn things around.

When I was 17-years-old I was doing Artex ceilings and started drinking with the other blokes after work. That’s how it was back then: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday you’d go for a drink. We’d go out to The Old Mill, Shambles, and we’d often go out in Chesterfield – and that’s where I started getting into trouble fighting, as well as taking speed. I got into some real hassle with some bouncers in a club called Xanadu, they burned my arms with cigarettes, so I went back and whacked one of them. They took me outside, the coppers handcuffed me and handed me back over to the bouncers who give me another hiding. I ended up with community service, and that’s when I got the letter from my mum begging me to sort myself out. It did the trick.

Do you ever think about where your life would be if you hadn’t received that letter?
I’d have probably done a bit of prison time, but I would have just been a grafter after that. I’m not sure whether I’d have been one of those that go in and out, in and out. I’m too hyper to stay in this house, so prison definitely would not have suited me.


Woods admits he use to fight inside bars and outside seedy nightclubs, fuelled by alcohol and drugs. Woods quoted by the publication discussed just how scared his mother was each time he went out. Woods explained: “Mam said she was frightened to death because every time I went out something bad was happening." Woods added: “I used to take ecstasy. Not many really, only two or three in my life. But I did take whizz — amphetamines — along with other mates when we’d go out drinking. Everybody else was doing it so I was daft enough to do the same for just a fiver wrap."

The drugs made Woods violent and often times he'd go out looking for trouble. Woods stated: “The stuff makes some people want to dance, or in my case fight. I felt like I could fight King Kong."

Woods credits his mother for the turn around in his life. “I was around 20 when my mum was sick of me getting into trouble and got me to stop," said Woods, adding: “She wrote me a letter, telling me I was ruining my life. It was a turning point for me."

He didn't look at all himself against Tarver and he said everything went wrong in camp for that one

“The only regret is I didn’t pull out of the Tarver fight,” says Woods, who left the sport two fights later with no self-reproach.

“Everything went wrong in the build-up, my manager should have pulled me out. I was champion, for the money I got it, it was stupid.”