Clinton Woods v Antonio Tarver

Clinton Woods lost his IBF light-heavyweight title in desperately disappointing fashion in Tampa on Saturday night when he was comprehensively outpointed by home favourite Antonio Tarver.

Woods dropped a wide 116-112, 117-111, 119-109 decision in a poor affair in which the Sheffield star failed to do enough to drain the American’s questionable reserves of stamina.

Woods never got going and cut a dejected figure at the final bell as he contemplated losing a contest to a fighter who is clearly past his best and ripe for the taking by a younger, fresher man.

The night had started badly for Woods and got progressively worse as Tarver, despite clearly gasping for breath between rounds, was allowed to dictate the fight and skate home to victory.

Instead of pressing from the start, Woods sat back and a left uppercut from Tarver was the only punch of a note in a cagey first round, while Woods’ workrate barely improved for the second.

Woods was implored by his corner to pick up the pace for round three but he found it hard with Tarver looking composed off the back foot and countering well to underline his control.

The Sheffield man was not doing enough to sap the energy reserves of the home favourite and test the common assertion that Tarver was past his best after a series of poor performances in recent fights.

Tarver landed a flush left in the fourth round and continued to look a little too clever for Woods, who bore forward for previous few rewards, but Tarver too was looking distinctly lackadaisical in a fight which was providing few fireworks.

Tarver stepped it up in the fifth which he dominated, landing two excellent counter-attacking rights and warming to his task against the Briton, who looked woefully short of ideas.

The Floridian was utterly dominant in the sixth, during which he flung home left jabs at will and fired right uppercuts which left Woods bleeding around his nose and looking increasingly clueless.

Although Woods landed a decent right hand at the start of the seventh, it failed to wobble slippery Tarver. A good body shot scored well but such single moments of success were barely enough to bring him back into the fight.Boos rang out around the arena during a dull eighth round in which Woods lack of activity was matched by a sluggish effort on the part of Tarver which suggested the American may have struggled under a bigger barrage.

Tarver was visibly gasping on his stool in between rounds but frustratingly Woods could not test his stamina, failing to follow up his rare moments of success while Tarver was allowed to score at will and take round after round.

In the final throes of a disappointing fight Woods also tired, enabling Tarver to finish strongly, clattering home two big lefts in the penultimate round which briefly prompted Woods to wade in for the first time.

But after taking more sustained punishment in the final round Woods, his face puffed up by the onslaught, slumped back to his corner and waited for the inevitable verdict.

Woods, clutching an ice pack to his badly cut lip in a disconsolate dressing room afterwards, said: “I don’t know if I froze on the big occasion. On the night, I didn’t perform like I could have done really. I could have done much better than that.

“All I want to do now is go home and see my family. I don’t want to make a decision about my future now. But I’ve still achieved more than I ever thought I would achieve in my career.”

Close to tears, Woods’ manager Dennis Hobson said: “Clinton didn’t get out of first gear and he never got his momentum going. Tarver could have been almost 49 years old and he could have boxed at that pace.

“Clinton’s a lot better than that, and I don’t want him to finish without doing himself justice. He’s come back from the setbacks before, and I want a happy ending. He can’t go out like that.”