Jones Looks Past Woods to Greater Glory

Roy Jones poured scorn on Clinton Woods's chances of stealing his world light heavyweight title last night, claiming his Sheffield challenger was not good enough to be in the same ring.

The champion is due to face Woods in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday night and clearly believes his victory will be little more than a formality.

The self-managed and promoted Jones said Woods had done nothing to deserve this fight. "That's why I tried to get out of it. But his people threatened to take me to court to strip me of my title. But do I think he deserves to be rated as No1 challenger? No."

Jones, 33, was keener to talk up the possibility of greater tests in the future, including the prospect of a world heavyweight title challenge against the World Boxing Association champion John Ruiz, whose hopes of a title defence against Mike Tyson seem to be receding.

"It's a gamble, a life-taking gamble," said Jones, who has ruled the middleweight, super middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions for more than a decade, losing only once as a professional in 47 fights.

"No middleweight ever won a world heavyweight title. It almost looks impossible. But if the money's right, I'll show you. You want to watch me do something phenomenal, then put the money on the table.

"I can guarantee Ruiz could earn $6m [£3.8m]. I think the public interest would be big enough to make it worth my while, so let's do it."

Jones has faced increasing criticism in some quarters for what have been viewed as comfortable defences and he is under pressure to move on to more meaningful contests than his match against Woods, which most observers expect to be an easy pay day.

The world's top middleweight Bernard Hopkins, who was outpointed by Jones in a world title fight nine years ago, is clamouring for a rematch, but Jones says Hopkins is pricing himself out of the contest.

"He says he wants $10m, but that's totally ridiculous. He can have $6m. I'll kick his ass and get it over," said Jones.

Jones also suggested he would be prepared to travel to Britain to face the World Boxing Organisation super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe and the long-time German-based WBO light-heavyweight champion Darius Michelczewski.

Despite the obvious conclusion that Jones appears to regard Saturday's contest as little more than a glorified sparring session before he moves on to more genuine tests, the organisers say the 17,000-capacity arena may completely sell out.