Boxing: Woods can be worthy foe

Clinton Woods knows that some quit, some go down hurt and some run for their pay when they step in the ring with Roy Jones, but he is grimly and perhaps foolishly determined to stand and have a fight when the first bell sounds here tonight at the Rose Garden.

Jones also knows what happens to men when they fight him and he is dismissive of his many critics who often accuse the men he beats of not trying when they have their chance or of simply trying to last the full 12 rounds. Woods is one of the critics.

"Try and imagine being in a room with four walls and no windows or doors and suddenly somebody is firing a gun at you. Now you tell me how you defend your arse when that goes down?" said Jones. "That is what it is like to share a ring with Roy Jones Jnr I would hate to fight me."

Woods has, in theory, earned the right to his payday of an estimated $900,000 (£580,000) by beating a succession of faded, former-rated fighters, but there is nothing in the Sheffield boxer's fighting history to suggest he will react differently once Jones has him under fire. Woods has a good chin, great stamina and his pride has been hurt by several months of derision in what passes these days for boxing's trade press, but the trio of assets will not save him if Jones is mean.

Jones will be defending his six world light-heavyweight titles and has also endured a tricky few months of criticism in the slow and often anonymous build-up to tonight's confrontation. He has again had to provide answers to questions that are now annoyingly familiar to his ears concerning his lack of profile and the list of apparent no-hopers he has met over the years.

"Before the fight the men I beat are challengers, but suddenly I take them down, break them mentally and people start calling them bums," said Jones. "That is disrespectful and I have told Clinton that when it is over he will be able to go back to his people with his head held high."

It has been a long time since Jones had to really fight and it is arguable that he has never once in his career, which started in 1989, had a difficult fight or anything that passes for a brawl. His only defeat in 47 fights was by disqualification and he avenged the loss with a one-round knock-out.

His reluctance to go toe-to-toe has affected his position in the hearts and minds of the American fight public and he has only fought in three pay-per-view events, a true test of a fighter's popularity.

"I will never be in a war because that is not the way I think," he said. "I'm Roy Jones Jnr and not Rocky Balboa and I know that I don't have to knock out everybody who gets in the ring with me. I started boxing as an athlete and I will leave boxing as an athlete and not talking funny with somebody holding my hand."

Woods can chisel away at Jones from distance with his jab, but it is hard to see a way that he can keep his name off the list of men Jones is criticised for fighting. Still, for $900,000 most people would be happy to be on any list even if it is little more than a hit list.