Cloud Destroys Wood

By Eric Thomas: In an impressive raw display of pur punching power, undefeated light heavyweight knockout artist Tavoris Cloud (18-0, 17 KOs) annihilated an over matched Mike Wood (19-7-1, 11 KOs) last night, stopping him in the 1st round of a scheduled 12-round bout for the USBA, NABA and WBO NABO light heavyweight titles at the Aragon Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois. What looked like a good match on paper, turned out to be an ugly one-sided affair as Cloud, 28, tore into Woods from the start of the fight, hitting him with tremendous shots to the head with lefts and rights.

After getting him with several huge blasts from Cloud, Woods began circling the ring, throwing a half-hearted jab and trying to keep out of range of Cloud. It didn’t work. Cloud quickly cut off the ring and landed a howitzer of a right hand that dropped Woods backwards like a folded card on the canvas. He got up off the canvas, incredibly, and after being checked out by the referee, the action was allowed to resume.

Wasting no time at all, Cloud sprinted accross the ring and landed a big over hand right, followed by a brief flurry and then another huge right hand that dropped Wood as if he’d been shot. This time the referee Pete Podgorski didn’t hesitate to stop the fight, ending it at 1:23 of the 1st round.

Due to the quickness of the fight, it’s hard to say how good Cloud is as a fighter. His power is very real, though, regardless of how good his opponent was. If he connects with anything, it’s got knockout intentions on it and he’d be a tough opponent for any of the top light heavyweights given his tremendous power.