Woodhouse Predicts Fireworks

[WelshDevilRob]

By Andrew Wake: Footballer turned boxer Curtis Woodhouse is predicting fireworks when he returns to the ring at Rotherham’s Magna Centre this Sunday (April 25).

 

by Andrew Wake

 

Woodhouse takes on Wolverhampton’s Steve Saville in what will be the first defence of the light-welterweight International Masters crown he won in February with a stunning three round knockout of Jay Morris.

 

And a KO is on the agenda again, but 30-year-old Curtis admits this time he doesn’t know which way it is going to go.

 

“I think this fight will be explosive and entertaining while it lasts but I don’t think it will go very far,” said the former Sheffield United midfielder. “One way or the other, I think he’ll knock me out or I’ll knock him out. It’ll be one of those sorts of battles.

 

“Saville is the sort of guy that comes straight at you as soon as the bell goes and he can punch with either hand so it’s a fight where I’ll have to be on my guard straight from the off.

 

“In his last fight he hurt Karl Place a couple of times with left hooks so he’s dangerous. Karl found the punches to get him out of there but he was close to be knocked out himself a few times.

 

“I know Saville is not going to out box me for 10 rounds, his plan will be to knock me out and my plan is to knock him out as well.”

 

When Woodhouse shocked the world of professional football by announcing he was taking up boxing, the expectation was that he’d soon change his mind once he found out how tough the so called ‘Sweet Science’ really is.

 

But almost four years on the man nicknamed ‘The Driffield Destroyer’ has proved the naysayers wrong by emerging as a legitimate contender for domestic light-welterweight honours.

 

“With me coming from football there is always going to be doubters,” Woodhouse said. “[but] what people say about me is water off a duck’s back. People are going to knock me right up until the point I retire but I’m in this to win the British title so I’m going to continue until I do.”

 

That British title shot may come sometime in the next 12 to 18 months. In the meantime Curtis, 12 – 1 (7 KOs), is aiming to build up his collection of belts the traditional way.

 

“I came into this game as a fan so I’d like to do it the old way by winning the area title, the English title and then the British title,” he stated. “To me that would be like my WBC, WBA and IBF.

 

“I don’t know what John Fewkes is going to do with the area title so I’d like to fight Steve Williams for his English belt. I think if you put mine and Steve William’s styles into the mix it will be a cracker because he’s a tough kid who comes forward and throws hard shots and I like to think I do the same.

 

“I think people accept that Lenny Daws is the best light-welter on the domestic scene so I’d want that fight later. I don’t want to sound like I’m calling anyone out but whoever has the English title and the British is who I want.

 

“Then there’s people like Frankie Gavin coming through and he looks a class act who’ll go on to win world titles so I’d like to get him at some point before he goes on to dominate the world.

 

“When I retire and look back at my career I want to be able to say I fought some really good kids. I want to get in with the best fighters and see where I am in there.

 

“I’ve probably had 100 street fights in my life and lost about 80 of them, so I’m not bothered about losing on my way to the top, I just want to prove myself against the best out there.”

 

While Steve Saville may not himself be the best there is, victory for Curtis over the hard puncher from the Black Country will certainly provide a gauge to measure how far he is away from boxing in the big time.

 

Source:

www.secondsout.com

[gavpowell]

After he beat Jay Morris at the second time of asking, we were told he'd be facing the French champion, but again it's an English journeyman(with due respect to Mr Saville)

 

Fiighting Frankie Gavin's cast-offs is not the road to speedy progression, in my opinion.