By Jason Kim: The winner of this Saturday’s light heavyweight clash between World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (25-0, 16 KO’s) vs. two-time light heavyweight champion unbeaten Chad Dawson (29-0, 17 KO’s) has the option of fighting IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (21-0, 18 KO’s) in a light heavyweight unification bout. This is a fight that HBO and boxing fans want to see. It’s going to be hard for the Dawson-Pascal winner to resist that pressure unless they can come up with a better fight than Cloud, such as IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute.

There is talk of Dawson fighting Bute next if he can get by Pascal. However, that remains to be seen. A lot of boxing fans are skeptical about Bute agreeing to take on the bigger and faster Dawson. Although it would be a great fight for HBO and the fans, it would be a really risky fight for Bute to take due to Dawson’s speed, reach and size advantage. If the fight against Bute can’t happen, then the Cloud fight will end up being just as interesting as fight. Cloud is an all action fighter who fights in streaks.

Everything he throws is with knockout intentions. Cloud may not have the defensive ability of someone like Dawson, but he makes up for it with his power and high punch output. Last weekend, Cloud defeated former light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson by a 12 round unanimous decision in one of the most exciting fights of the year. Johnson and Cloud went back and forth for 12 rounds, trading shots with one another. In the end, Cloud was too powerful, too active and too fast for the older 41-year-old Johnson.

Cloud didn’t dominate Johnson as much as Dawson had done last year in November in a 12 round unanimous decision win for Dawson, but it was pretty close to being about the same. Dawson didn’t get hit nearly as much by Johnson as Cloud did, but Cloud made it far more interesting with his big power shots and constant work rate. Cloud didn’t take nearly as many rest breaks as Dawson did in beating Johnson. This is what would make Cloud such a dangerous opponent for Dawson to fight.

Cloud may not have the same height, reach or defensive ability that Dawson has, but he makes up for it with his power and constant flow of punches. With that alone, he would be problems for Dawson unless Chad upped his work rate considerably. He wouldn’t just be able to beat Cloud on movement and his jab. Dawson would actually have to fight him in the trenches to get a win over Cloud.

But first things first, Dawson has to beat Pascal this Saturday in their fight at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. This fight could prove to be just as difficult unless Dawson is busy throughout the fight. In Dawson’s four wins over the 40-year-olds Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson in the past two years, Dawson has shown a problem where he takes too many rest breaks and lets his opponents back into the fight. When Dawson is punching and fighting hard, he dominates but then he eases off and does nothing for a round or two and makes his fights a lot closer than they would normally be. It looks as if Dawson either has stamina issues or he just gets bored and distracted while dominating some of his opponents. Dawson can’t afford to do this against Pascal if he wants to win, because he’s a lot younger than Tarver and Johnson and will keep coming for the whole 12 rounds.