Thirty years on: Clinton Woods, boxing and his dodgy corduroy pants
It was Clinton Woods' debut as a professional boxer - and the skinny lad from Sheffield had a problem.
The issue wasn't the prospect of climbing into the ring with Yorkshire rival Dave Proctor.
And he could handle the nerves that beset anybody taking to the pro game for the first time.
No, it was all about his pants.
He didn't like the shorts he would wear that night, 30 years ago this Sunday.
Woods hadn't wanted anything high-fashion - he just wanted to look a bit little like Marvin Hagler did.
"I didn't have any boxing shorts" he recalled.
"My girlfriend at the time said her grandmother would make me some.
"I had recently watched a Hagler fight, and he was boxing in corduroy shorts and I thought they looked nice.
“So I went to the market and bought some corduroy, but we didn't do any fitting.
"On the day of the fight, I saw the shorts and they were horrendous, they were like three-quarter trousers. I got some funny looks in the changing rooms, and it was the last time I wore them.”
It was Thursday, November 17, 1994.
The scene was the Pinegrove Country Club, situated on Myers Grove Lane.
His opponent was Leeds-born Proctor who had a record of two wins and two defeats.
In the changing rooms, Clinton, was asking himself a question.
"Why am I doing this? I am going to earn £240, I earn more on the building sites...”
Clinton had enjoyed a successful amateur career, but had quit boxing when he was 16.
The ex-Westfield Comprehensive pupil was working as a labourer on building sites, but would often find himself in trouble with the law after a night of heavy drinking and street fighting.
Clinton remembers being told by a policeman: “You’ve really messed up this time, son, you are going to prison”.
Thankfully for Clinton, he was spared jail and received a community service.
At 22 years old, Woods wandered into a “tiny” boxing gym in Woodhouse just to “keep fit”.
He remembers that his “belly was sticking out”.
But after applying himself hard in the gym, his trainer Neil Port and manager Dennis Hobson suggested he turn professional.
Clinton, now aged 52, of Ridgeway, recalled: “I bet it was less than a year after me walking into that gym and then having my first professional fight.”
Three decades ago, the pressure was on Woods.
He had 500 supporters that night, making him the star attraction at the Pinegrove.
The Stannington venue could host around 800 fans, but the atmosphere resembled a mini Hillsborough football stadium; most of Woods’ supporters were Sheffield Wednesday fans.
“The atmosphere was brilliant, the Pinegrove was buzzing.”
Woods beat Proctor on points over six rounds. “The fight started and we just got on with it.
"He was a tough guy, we had a proper war. I still have it [the fight] on a video tape somewhere. It was a pretty tough fight for a debut”.
According to Boxrec, Clinton’s debut was the first time the Pinegrove had hosted professional boxing. It would go on to host eight shows in total, the last one in the summer of 1997.
The Pinegrove became a fortress for Clinton.
He boxed there seven times and won each time. It was also where he won his first professional title. In 1996, he beat Bradford’s Craig Joseph for the Central Area super middleweight title.
“It was one of the best feelings in my career winning that.
"Because I never thought I would win a title”, Clinton remembered with fondness.
Woods would go on to become the IBF light heavyweight champion of the world from 2005 to 2008. Even though at the start of his career he had, “no aspirations of winning anything.
"I thought I would have a few fights and then lose, and that would be it.”
He still questions his introduction to boxing: “My dad took me to a boxing gym when I was seven, it was unusual because all my brothers played football. "One Christmas I remember all my brothers getting football kits but I got a boxing bag.
"I always think back to that, I don't understand why he got me a boxing bag, because I wasn't into it.”
Reminded of it being the 30-year anniversary of his professional boxing debut, Clinton laughed, saying: “Oh God, it seems like a long time. I actually thought it was longer.”
Woods has fond memories of Pinegrove, “It was one of those places that were always busy and everyone loved to go. It was good banter, everybody knew each other.
"Naz [Naseem Hamed] used to go up there and play snooker. The football fields were always packed. They had squash courts which were also busy. On boxing nights, they used to use the big hall, it was always packed.
"The atmosphere was brilliant because it was one big room, the noise would echo off the walls. It was sad when it went.”
The country club closed down in 2004 and suffered severe fire damage shortly after.
That year started badly for Woods as well, he lost his third attempt at a world title, defeated on points by Jamaican “Road Warrior” Glen Johnson at Ponds Forge Arena.
But Woods would go on to rule the world.
The Sheffield-born and bred boxer finally won a world title on his fourth attempt in 2005, stopping the previously unbeaten American Rico Hoye at the Magna Centre.
Woods successfully defended the IBF title four times, before retiring in 2009 after losing to American Tavoris Cloud in Florida.
Clinton’s record read 42 wins five losses and one draw, he said, “I wish I could do it all again, sometimes. I have fond memories.”
Whilst Woods has several career mementos, regrettably he does not have his Hagler-esque corduroy boxing shorts.
“I lost them, I wish I had them, they’d make a great souvenir”.
And as for Dave Proctor? Pinegrove was the end of the road. He never boxed again.
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