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Woods loses title

Clinton Woods's reign as a world champion ended with a whimper in Tampa last night as he was completely outboxed by Antonio Tarver, who took his IBF light-heavyweight title with a unanimous points decision.

At 39, the American looked there for the taking, but Woods barely took him outside his comfort zone. Instead Woods mostly stood in front of him, allowing Tarver to work away with cluster of punches, few of which carried much weight, but many of which landed.

Johnson still after a fourth fight with Woods

If Clinton Woods has concerns that he wouldn't see any familiar faces when he boxed in Florida, he need not have worried. Sitting just along from him at Thursday's press conference was Glen Johnson, who hae has boxed 36 rounds with.

The Florida-based Jamaican, who faced Bernard Hopkins for the IBF middleweight title back in 1997, challenges Chad Dawson for the WBC light-heavyweight title tonight on the same bill that sees Woods defend his IBF light-heavyweight title against Antonio Tarver. Johnson and Tarver are both 39, four years older than Woods. Dawson, who is making the third defence of his title, is the youngest by far at 25.

Johnson knows a bit about both Woods and Tarver, he faced Woods three times, first a draw, then a Johnson win and finally a Woods win in Bolton in 2006. He has also a win and a loss against Tarver. And he finds it hard to pick a winner between the pair.

Woods and Tarver make weight

Clinton Woods and Antonio Tarver both made weight at the first attempt for tomorrow's IBF light-heavyeweight title bout here in Tampa, Florida. At the weigh-in, at the ballroom of the Westin Harbour Island Hotel, at 5pm local time, Woods, the champion, scaled on the 12st 7lb limit, while Tarver weighed 12st 5 3/4lb.

Tarver is not ready to retire

Thursday's press conference was always going to be an occasion for Antonio Tarver to unveil the showman that is never far from the surface and so it proved. Two days to go before he challenges Clinton Woods for the IBF light-heavyweight title and Tarver was there to sell tickets and get the Tampa Bay area out to support him in the first of what he hopes will be a run of three titles in three bouts.

"I'm not ready to retire, I'm not here to play no games, I'm not ready to go nowhere," Tarver, 39, said. "So all those writers who are writing me off, talking about 'I've seen my best day', they don't have a clue.

"If you think I've come this far to let Clinton Woods get anything on Saturday, you've got to be kidding. I'm back, I'm as stong as ever, we trained our ass off and we are going to set Tampa alight. Clinton Woods and his team are excited and they are going to have a lot of hopes and dreams that are going to be dashed. It's going to be a spectacular night."

Poxon has no worries about Woods

Richard Poxon has only know good times as the trainer of Clinton Woods. So it is no surprise that he has few doubts that Woods will make a fifth successful defence of his IBF light-heavyweight title against Antonio Tarver, in Tampa, on Saturday.

Tarver, 39, is favourite and boxing in his home town, but Poxon is confident. "You cannot ignore Tarver's pedigree, he was world No 1 as an amateur, but if Tarver wasn't a southpaw, I wouldn't lose any sleep on this," Poxon said. "The question with Tarver is heart and desire and that's just what Clinton is."

Tarver planning to box his way

Many boxers spend hours studying every aspect of their opponent, before working out a detailed battle plan. Antonio Tarver is not one of those boxers. In fact, ahead of Saturday night's IBF light-heavyweight title bout against Clinton Woods in Tampa, Florida, which will be shown live in the UK on Setanta Sports on Saturday, Tarver revealed he has not watched any tapes of Woods at all.

"My coaches watch the tapes," Tarver, the IBO champion, said. "They then draw up the gameplan for me.