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Last night at American Bank Center Arena in Corpus Christi, TX, light heavyweight Tavoris Cloud retained his IBF crown with a highly controversial split decision victory over challenger Gabriel Campillo.
Former WBA light heavyweight and European super middle champion Campillo was coming off a split draw in a rematch with ex-European super middle titlist Karo Murat and was not expected to give the undefeated Cloud, who had previously retained the IBF belt three times, more than a routine challenge.
It certainly looked that way in the first frame as Cloud put Campillo on the seat of his pants with a right hand before nailing the Spanish southpaw with a left that produced a knockdown when referee Mark Nelson ruled that only the ropes kept Campillo from falling to the floor.
Campillo somehow managed to recover from his opening round debacle as the 33 year old from Madrid went on to produce a very sharp display of boxing.
The second frame saw Campillo wrest control from the shorter, stronger Tallahassee based champion and put on a display of educated boxing in the third.
Cloud made an adjustment in the fourth, going effectively to Campillo’s midsection but also suffered a bad laceration above the left eye.
The fifth is another back and forth round as Campillo starts to mix in body shots as well with Cloud getting in the harder shots but scoring less frequently than the challenger.
Cloud sees a return to form in the sixth, going to the body and landing some wide, hard punches while Campillo uses his height and reach advantage to slip in some cagey counters.
The challenger stops Cloud’s momentum in the seventh, lashing the champion with both hands in convincing fashion. Campillo’s run extends through the eighth as Cloud, who suffers another cut, is getting outworked and outpunched.
The Spanish victory parade keeps going through the ninth as Cloud can’t avoid getting nailed by Campillo’s superb combination punching and the man from Madrid keeps his foot to the floor through the tenth.
The eleventh sees Cloud mount a comeback, getting in some quality work as Campillo gets overconfident. Cloud fights with a sense of urgency in the 12th and final round, swinging for the fences but not hitting much as Campillo does little more than look to avoid getting caught by a hail mary.
When the scores are announced, Cloud somehow wins one of the cards 116-110, is awarded the second at 114-112 while Campillo takes the third 115-111.
It’s a split decision victory for Cloud, now 24-0 (19), while Campillo, who lost a similar controversial decision to Beibut Shumenov two years ago for the WBA crown, falls to 21-4-1 (8).
Also on the bill, former WBO welter ruler Paul Williams, 41-2 (27), outhustled former Interim WBA light middle and Japanese titlist Nobuhiro Ishida, 24-7-2 (9), over 12 rounds.
Williams went on the attack from the first bell, putting it on Ishida and never letting the Osaka spoiler show the form that crushed contender James Kirkland in one round last year.
Williams was awarded a 120-108 unanimous decision on all three cards and the vacant USNBC light middleweight strap.
There was heavyweight action on the bill as well with ex-WBC title challenger Chris Arreola, 35-2 (30), leveraging a huge experience advantage to KO opponent Eric Molina, 18-2 (14), at 2:30 of the first round and take Molina’s USNBC belt.
