By Alistair Hendrie

Curtis Woodhouse is discovering the challenges that face him in the lightweight division.

Woodhouse made his debut at 135lbs last Friday, demolishing Sandor Horvath inside two minutes, but the Driffield fighter suggested the one-sided victory provided more questions than answers.

“I hoped to get a few more rounds in,” he said. “Making the weight like I did, I didn’t learn anything new. My manager Dave Coldwell said durability would be the main problem in moving to lightweight, but I’m not even sure I took any shots”.

Woodhouse had a plan mapped out in his head and revealed: “I wanted to see how I’d feel around rounds six, seven and eight, whether or not I’d still have it in the tank during the latter rounds. I can never say I’m disappointed to get a first round knockout, although I wanted to learn more.”

Horvath, the 19-year-old Hungarian, agreed to the fight on 24 hours notice and surprised everyone at Ponds Forge Arena in Sheffield by starting out as a southpaw.

“Initially I thought he was trying to confuse me; I had no idea he was a southpaw. Fortunately I’ve sparred a lot with Ryan Rhodes, and I also boxed Frankie Gavin in 2011 [a split decision loss], so I’ve been in there with two of the best southpaws this country has ever seen.

Woodhouse continued: “It was a bit of a race against time for Coldwell to find me an opponent, and I am very grateful that I had someone in front of me on the night. Dave did a lot of work for me in the end and it’s another win, plus more wages under my belt.”

While victory brought the 33-year-old to a respectable record of 18(12)-5(1), a question-mark still hangs over Woodhouse’s consistency in the ring.

The father-of-three has failed to win consecutive fights since 2010, but is convinced his recent record should not be used as an indication of his ability.   

“It’s important to keep winning but my record is very deceiving. Sometimes when you look at a fighter and you see win, lose, win, lose, it doesn’t tell the whole story. I’ve boxed some good kids.

“I’ve never been outboxed; I’ve never been outclassed. The only defeat where I’ve come away feeling second best was against Dale Miles [KO in 2012]. My confidence is always high and I never go into fights thinking: “Oh my God, I’ve lost five fights.”