You will struggle to find Legacy Park on the map - the satellite navigation system had not heard of it - but off a lonely highway, down a long street of Identikit terracotta villas, with cars in each drive, past another street of matching dream homes, Clinton Woods is lounging by the pool, looking uncomfortable. To some this would be a dream life, but not for Woods. “I'm bored out of my brains,” he says.

Top-level boxing is as much about this mundane existence as it is the thrill of the big contest - train, rest, contemplate the big night ahead. Peak physical condition does not come from days out at Disney World.

Woods, the IBF light-heavyweight champion, is 5,000 miles from his Sheffield home and his moment of truth comes on Saturday, when he defends his title against Antonio Tarver, a self-proclaimed boxing great and a film star. The most recent time Woods boxed in the United States - in 2002, when he lost to Roy Jones Jr in Portland, Oregon - he mixed training with sightseeing. This time there are no niceties, just television, a small pool and a small team of training partners and friends. The local architecture is not to his taste.

“It's like Legoland - all the houses look the same, all the roads look the same, all the pools look the same,” Woods says. “I went for a jog, me and my mate, and we tried to go in the wrong door. There was an old couple looking through the window suspiciously as we tried to get the key in the door. It looked like our house, but it was about ten doors down.”

Woods, 35, has been a world champion for three years, but a win over Tarver in the US would be a big breakthrough. “When I fought Jones, I was 30, but I had not really matured,” Woods says. “I think I enjoyed the occasion too much when I look back on it. I look at the video and I'm smiling walking to the ring and when I'm waiting in the ring and he [Jones] is singing a rap song. This time I'm totally different - stronger, better, more experienced.

“Someone told me the other day that they think I made a big mistake when I fought Jones, but how can it have been a big mistake? When I turned pro, I only went to the gym to keep fit and I turned pro probably as just some macho thing. Then I got offered a million-dollar payday to fight Jones - how can that be daft?”

A win over Tarver and million-dollar paydays will become the norm for this most down-to-earth of world champions. He has to pinch himself when he realises what he has achieved. A title, any title, was not even a thought when he turned professional, after he had fallen into a lifestyle of drinking and brawling.

“I boxed as a junior when I was 11 to 16 and then gave it up,” he says. “I went back to the gym just to get fit and Dennis [Hobson, his promoter] asked me if I wanted to go pro. I didn't think about it, I just said yes. I was surprised when I won my first fight.

“When I first turned pro, my old trainer used to tell people ‘he'll be British champion' and I used to be embarrassed. I used to tell him, 'Don't say that because I'm not going to be British champion, it's embarrassing.' I just thought I'd win three or four, lose three or four and then pack it in.

“But then I kept on winning and then won the Commonwealth title at super-middleweight and lost it in the first defence and I was going to pack it in. I thought, 'That's it.' But I was still playing at it, I was still out drinking with my mates and then I started training properly and I had a go at light-heavyweight.”

At that weight, success followed success until he won the IBF title at the fourth attempt, stopping Rico Hoye in four rounds. His four successful defences included a revenge win over Glen Johnson, who had beaten and drawn with Woods in previous meetings and who holds a win, also avenged, over Tarver.

Woods was on the sharp end of Tarver's tongue at press conferences either side of the Atlantic to launch this bout. Tarver's self-importance may have helped him to win the role as Sylvester Stallone's opponent in Rocky Balboa, but it has brought him few admirers. “I never really liked him, after the press conference I dislike him even more,” Woods says. “But no one I've spoken to here likes him. When we came through customs, the immigration guards were saying, 'Do us a favour, beat that loudmouth.'”

If he does win, Woods has no intention of heading for the sun or the theme parks. Instead, a family caravanning holiday awaits. “I'm coming home the day after the fight, I want to see my two kids,” he says. “I'll probably go out with my mates, then hitch up the caravan and go off for a few days. Probably the North Yorkshire coast, but it depends on the weather.

“Have you seen the size of the trailers here? I could fit my caravan inside one of those. It takes all the fun out of it; it's like dragging a house round with you. I don't like the weather here, it's too hot. I like a nice, crisp, cold morning, me. I wouldn't swap my house for this - not in a thousand years. I wouldn't swap the caravan for this.”

Clinton Woods v Antonio Tarver on Saturday and Joe Calzaghe v Bernard Hopkins on April 19 are live on Setanta Sports.

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