By James Slater: Reigning International Boxing Federation (IBF) light-heavyweight champ Tavoris Cloud, one of the most exciting, all-out action fighters around today, will see more action on the Feb. 18th Paul Williams-Nobuhiro Ishida card set for Corpus Christi, Texas.
Unbeaten Cloud, 23-0(19) will face former World Boxing Association (WBA) 175-pound champ Gabriel Campillo of Spain. The February card will also feature WBC #1 ranked heavyweight contender Chris Arreola in action against a TBA (with Arreola’s trainer Henry Ramirez saying his charge will face a “top name”).
The Cloud fight looks the most interesting of the three thus far (unless Arreola winds up facing a Tomasz Adamek or someone!)
30-year-old Cloud has had his share of disappointing, enforced layoffs in his career. Set to fight this past New Year’s Eve, against Zsolt Erdei, the power-punching Floridian saw the fight fall through due to an Erdei injury. Having won the IBF belt back in August of 2009, with a win over Clinton Woods, Cloud has been able to defend his crown just three times in the following two years. Wanting to be more active but seemingly having trouble getting guys to agree to fight him, Cloud will no doubt be pleased he has the 33-year-old Spaniard to rumble with.
Campillo, known as “The Handsome Man,” is a clever southpaw who has gained a lot of experience with fights in Europe. Twice going in with current WBA champ Beibut Shumenov (a close points win in fight-one, a close points loss in the return), the 33-year-old also holds wins over Lolenga Mock and Hugo Hernan Garay. Last time out, Campillo fought a rematch of a points loss to Karo Murat, picking up a draw in October of 2011.
The fight with Cloud will definitely be Campillo’s biggest test to date, as will it be his first fight in America. Will the occasion prove to be too much for the man from Madrid? Will Cloud’s sheer strength and volume of punching prove too much for Campillo? Or will the challenger’s stance and boxing ability serve to give a possibly rusty Cloud fits (Cloud last fought in June of 2011, his sole fight of last year)?
A good, solid and interesting fight on paper, there should be some decent action in Corpus Christi. Campillo has been stopped just one time: by Vyacheslav Uzelkov of Ukraine, who scored a 6th-round KO win back in 2007 to take Campillo’s unbeaten record. It figures then, that Cloud may have to go a few rounds next month.
I expect Cloud to win, via late-rounds stoppage, and to then continue to look for bigger fights.