When it comes to exciting fighters it's hard to think of many with as much exiting potential as Tavoris Cloud, the hard hitting Light Heavyweight who looks to have signed a contract that could effectively end much of the hype that had been building. Cloud has sadly signed with don King, a promoter who once meant success now means inactivity. Born in 1982 he was viewed as one of the young crop of fighters in the division to replace the older fighters such as Antonio Tarver, Roy Jones Jr, Glen Johnson and Bernard Hopkins.
After compiling an amateur record of 46-8 and winning U19 championships he would turn professional. He would debut in 2004 as a 22 year old and would compile 5 straight wins by the end of that year, all by way of stoppage with 3 ending in the first round. Though 2005 would see him taken the distance for the time, it was only against experienced journeyman Reggie Strickland. He would then go back to stopping opponents. By the end of 2007 he was 17-0 with 16 stoppages and many with an ear close to the ground in the sport felt he was on the verge of being a super star. Sadly the following year would see him step up the quality but really cut back on the quantity. He went from 4 or 5 fights a year to just 2 in the entire of 2008.
Though his victory over Mike Wood in March saw him picking up the USBA, NABA and WBO NABO titles at Light Heavyweight and then it was followed with the biggest victory of his career, a 10th round stoppage over the tough Julio Cesar Gonzalez in an IBF title Eliminator. Prior to this Gonzalez had never been stopped in over 40 fights which made Cloud's achievement in just his 19th fight all the more amazing. Cloud was now being spoken about as the natural challenger to fight Chad Dawson but Dawson would give up his title instead and fight a rematch with Glen Johnson rather than facing Cloud.
As a result of Dawson vacating Cloud would fight former champion Clinton Woods from England. In a fight that many felt was Clouds first chance to really prove himself whilst others felt it was last chance saloon for Woods. What the fight showed was that Cloud, for all his power, still lacked some of the finesse he will need to be the great star, he took a 116-112 scoreline on all 3 cards to win the title by unanimous decision though few seemed to be impressed with his performance. The hype it seemed, was more hyperbole than it should have been.
Cloud was scheduled to make the first defence of his title against Glen Johnson in early 2010 though had to pull out of that fight with a reported “hamstring injury”. It was later revealed that he had signed with King and had been forced to pull out of his defence, which had been given a guaranteed slot on HBO. Now it seems that his career is in the hands of King, and unless King manages to do something, Cloud could well end up being one of the forgotten fighters of the era.
With a record of 20-0 (18KO's) Cloud will hopefully added to it, though if, like a handful of other King fighters, he is “forgotten” he's not going to fulfil his early potential.
Source : www.helium.com
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