Tavoris Cloud

[BoztheMadman]

Probably the greatest unfulfilled talent of this century’s light heavyweights, Tavoris Cloud had a rather successful career and won the IBF title, but will also be remembered as the guy that could have probably achieved even more. Not long after winning the title, he seemed to get lazy and deteriorate as a boxer, needing a disputed decision to retain his title against Gabriel Campillo and finally losing it to the ancient Bernard Hopkins-which in itself was a disappointment. He was not tall for a light heavyweight at 5 foot 10, but was strong and athletic, had the fundamentals and could hit hard enough. 
 

Tavoris Karod Cloud was born 10 January 1982 in Tallahassee, Florida and grew up in a rough neighborhood, which led him to start boxing at the age of 14-15, also in order to provide for his family. Alonzo Johnson was his first trainer. As amateur, the young Tavoris competed at the 2002 US championships and got to the final, where he lost to Curtis Stevens. Before that, he also won gold at the 2000 Junior World Championships, at 278 lbs. He also competed at the national Golden Gloves that year, where he lost against Allan Green, a future world title challenger. He finally turned pro in April 2004, aged 22. Early on, he won all his fights by knockout, except against seasoned veteran Reggie Strickland, which went the distance. He went 18-0 with 17 ko’s before fighting Julio Cesar Gonzalez in an IBF eliminator, 8 August 2008, in Chicago. Cloud soundly dominated the faded Mexican former champion and stopped him by TKO 10 after throwing over a thousand punches! 
 

This victory paved the way to the fight for the IBF title, which was declared vacant earlier after Chad Dawson relinquished it to fight for the WBC one. On 28 August 2009, at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Tavoris Cloud entered history by defeating the former titleholder Clinton Woods of England by 116-112 on all scorecards. He was now hyped as the new sensation at 175, but it took almost a year before he defended his belt and against the 41-yearold Glen Johnson, who was however still game and coming off an impressive stoppage victory over Yusaf Mack. The fight took place in Saint Louis, 7 August 2010, and Cloud dominated most of it and staggered Johnson once, while Johnson had his moments but was unable to keep up with the much younger champion. Cloud once again won by 116-112 from all judges. His second defense was against former super middleweight contender Fulgencio Zuniga of Colombia, on 17 December in Miami. Cloud had Zuniga down in rounds 5 and 12 but was unable to finish him off and so had to settle for another decision victory. 
 

He then finally scored a knockout in his third defense, when he beat the aforementioned Yusaf Mack by TKO 8, 25 June 2011 in Saint Charles. Then came his most controversial fight, when he defended for fourth time against the clever and tricky Spaniard Gabriel Campillo, 18 February 2012 in Corpus Christi. Cloud put the 6’2 Campillo down twice in the first round. The referee gave him an eight count, even though by the Texas rules there are no standing eight counts, so Campillo made it out of the round fine and came back strong. Cloud was cut from a punch in round 4 over the left eye and struggled for the rest of the fight. In the end, one judge had Campillo ahead by 115-110, but the other two favored the champion by 114-112 and 116-110. The decision was very unpopular, as many thought Campillo had won. 
 

Instead of a rematch, Cloud made his fifth defense against Bernard Hopkins, who was 48 when they fought on 9 March 2013 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Always known for his dirty tricks, Hopkins cut Cloud over left eye lid with a headbutt judged to be accidental in round 6 and once again later cut him on the right eyelid as well in round 12. In the end, Hopkins won clearly on all scorecards and made history as the oldest light heavyweight champion. This was the beginning of the end for the 31-yearold Cloud. He then made a mistake and accepted another major fight only six months later, fighting against the newly crowned WBC champion Adonis Stevenson of Haiti and Canada. Stevenson, although older at 36, had less fights however and was a deadly puncher. On 28 September at Bell Centre in Montreal, Cloud looked poor and was dismantled in 7 rounds, quitting on his stool after the 7th. 
 

He would come back on 27 September 2014, almost exactly a year later, again fighting at Bell Centre, this time against the new prospect and future kingpin of the division: Artur Beterbiev. Cloud was knocked out in 2 rounds by the Chechen puncher after being down thrice late in the first round and then put down again in the start of the second and counted out after 38 seconds. Aged only 32 and after mere 5 years at the elite level, Tavoris Cloud was a spent force. He retired but came back once more as a cruiserweight in 2020 and fought for the last time on 20 November, easily beating the 4-11-1 Ryan Soft by a TKO3. That cemented his record at 25 wins and 3 losses, with 20 knockouts. 

Why did his career unravel like it did? Well, Tavoris Cloud looked like one of those guys that bought too much into their own hype, maybe. He just seemed less impressive not long after winning the title, but he also probably lacked the boxing IQ to beat someone like Campillo or Hopkins. He definitely was a fighter of physical talents, first and foremost. Whatever the truth, Cloud was for a while one of the biggest and most exciting names at 175. Inactivity also seemed to play a part in his downfall. However, certain big players also entered the division soon after his ascent to the throne and he just wasn’t able to best them, some of his biggest wins coming against older and no longer prime opponents. 
 

[LondonRingRules]

--- Boz, Tavoris was slow and a mediocre boxer. What he had was DKing promoting him, and in his first IBF title challenge a 37 yr old Champion Clinton Woods who was a light swatter, yet still outboxed Tarvoris for much of the bout.

That and that he was genuinely tough. Hard to know what he could've done without King, but probably much less..

[BoztheMadman]

On 3/12/2024 at 3:48 PM, LondonRingRules said:

--- Boz, Tavoris was slow and a mediocre boxer. What he had was DKing promoting him, and in his first IBF title challenge a 37 yr old Champion Clinton Woods who was a light swatter, yet still outboxed Tarvoris for much of the bout.

That and that he was genuinely tough. Hard to know what he could've done without King, but probably much less..

But he was athletic and strong and tough, as you said.