By far the most notable bout of this coming weekend sees IBF Light Heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19) facing the legendary Bernard Hopkins (?-?) in what could end up being the final bout in the career of the iconic "Executioner".
The unbeaten Cloud, 31, is seen as an aggressive, fun to watch and hard hitting fighter. He started his career with an an impressive 18 stoppages in his first 19 fights before being taken 12 rounds in 4 of his last 5 bouts by experienced fighters such as former world champions Clinton Woods, Glen Johnson and Gabriel Campillo (as well as multi-time title contender Fulgencio Zuniga).
Although his power hasn't really carried up to the title level, he's still a very hurtful puncher and dropped Campillo several times on route to scoring a hugely controversial victory 13 months ago. Whilst he dropped Campillo it was also that fight that showed the limitations of Cloud who was regularly outscored by the moment and and hand speed of Campillo who appeared to win almost every round other than the first.
Whilst Cloud can be fun to watch he can appear crude and predictable at times. He's certainly determined and tough though his predictability is an issue, especially when he's facing clever fighters, like Hopkins is. However his energy, pure strength, and work rate does bail him out of being a little bit one paced at times. Despite his work rate there are question marks over his activity which has seen him fighting just 5 times since September 2008 and in fact since claiming his world title in August 2009 he has only defended it 4 times.
At 48 years old Bernard Hopkins is a fighter defying all logic. He's a fighter who is repeatedly proving that ring IQ is one of the most valuable assets a fighter can have and also something that allows you to carry on longer in the sport when the physical talents start to wane. Although saying that he can be beaten by fast fighters who manage to catch him or out work him whilst managing to maintain distance as Chad Dawson did last time out.
Hopkins may be best known for his outstanding Middleweight title reign between 1994 and 2005 however he has proven to be a very credible Light Heavyweight having beaten Jean Pascal and lost a controversial decision to Joe Calzaghe at the weight. However the victory over Pascal was almost 2 years ago and in 2 fights with Chad Dawson (a UD loss and a 2nd round Technical Draw) he was looking like an old man.
Sure Hopkins is a technical genius, he's made a career out of controlling the pace of the fight and the distance of the bout as well as using old skool tricks to get to his opponents, however he's the under-dog here fora reason. No one can carry on at the top level forever and Pascal showed in his first fight with Hopkins that the old man isn't as defensively sound as he once was. Cloud may not be a genius in the ring but he's bright enough to know that jumping on Hopkins early is the way to beat him.
The bookmakers have Cloud priced around 4/6 to win I'll be a little controversial and suggest that there is real value in Cloud by TKO/KO/DQ at around 5/1. The champion has a point to prove and the challenger is fighting both Cloud and father time.
Prediction-Cloud TKO6
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