Clinton Woods' date with destiny is finally with him, as he gets the chance to showcase his skills to the American public and set up a mega-fight in the future, if he can get past 'Magic Man' Antonio Tarver, live on Setanta Sports in the early hours of Sunday morning.

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The Sheffield fighter (41-3-1, 24 KOs) has been underrated by many opponents in his career and despite this being the fifth defence of his IBF light heavyweight title, Tarver (26-4, 19 KOs) seems to have fallen into the same trap.

If both these fighters met each other at their respective peaks, it would be difficult to make a case for Woods to win.

However, Tarver has not really shown such form since his victories over Roy Jones and even at this time - as shown by his defeat to Glen Johnson - he was capable of losing fights to boxers he should have beaten.

Despite his talk of unifying the light heavyweight division before the end of the year it is difficult to see the pattern of his chequered career changing.

Expect Woods to be out-boxed on occasions in the early stages, as Tarver shows the skills that made him the world amateur champion and capable of embarrassing Jones when he was the pound-for-pound number one, but if any fighter has the mindset to overcome such moments it is Woods.

He will make Tarver fight for three minutes of each round and by the middle of the fight I would be surprised if the American has the willingness to put in the same effort.

Tarver survived a one-sided beating from Hopkins so is unlikely to quit in the last half of the fight and with Woods being more of a cumulative puncher, a stoppage seems unlikely but he should have enough to take a points decision and set up another massive fight for him in the future.

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