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Montreal’s Bell Centre will be the scene of tonight’s WBC light heavyweight title contest as reigning champion Adonis Stevenson faces the challenge posed by former IBF champion Tavoris Cloud.
Cloud, 24-1 (19), comes in with a massive edge in big fight experience, having held the IBF strap for four defenses over a three and a half year span while southpaw Stevenson, 21-1 (18), will be making his maiden title defense.
Beyond the numbers, this one is a bit of a puzzler as 31 year old Cloud faced less than top, in-their-prime level competition in his world title bouts. Clinton Woods and Glen Johnson were well past it while Fulgencio Zuniga, Yusef Mack and Gabriel Campillo were never world class.
The first time Cloud did meet a true world class opponent, he was handcuffed by Bernard Hopkins, who took the IBF crown in the process.
36 year old Stevenson produced a shocker his last time out, jumping up from super middle, where he had spent a career feasting on second rate competition, to blow away WBC light heavyweight champ Chad Dawson in a single round this past June.
Dawson was coming off a decisive loss at super middle to that division’s top man, Andre Ward, and who knows how much he had left when he climbed through the ropes against Stevenson?
One thing is certain; Stevenson can punch. He’s finished his last 12 opponents within the distance, including avenging an embarrassing 2010 KO loss to journeyman Darnell Boone.
But Cloud can punch as well and he’s also gone 12 rounds on three occasions while Stevenson has just done it once, with most of his fights ending much earlier.
So, at 36 years of age, with very few of his contests having gone into later frames, what happens when Stevenson is pushed hard and taken into the championship rounds by Cloud?
That’s where Cloud’s advantage lies in this one and you can bet that Team Stevenson have been watching tapes of the challenger and prepping their man to land the perfect bout ending punch in the early rounds to avoid just such a scenario.
And this one probably won’t go into the later rounds. Cloud has been cut during his previous two contests and a re-occurrence could end matters especially as the fight takes places on Stevenson’s home turf, but this bout could come down to who has the better chin and Cloud has the advantage in that department.
The card is rounded out by the inclusion of several high profile boxers on the Canadian scene, including Jean Pascal, David Lemieux, Eleider Alvarez, Kevin Bizier and Antonin Decarie, who are all in tune up fights.
