By Eric Thomas: Rather than take on two-time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson in his next fight on December 17th, IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (21-0, 18 KO’s) is likely going to be facing either Otis Griffin (23-6-2, 4 KO’s) or Yusaf Mack (28-3-2, 17 KO’s) next in a bout that will be taking place at the American Airlines Arena, in Miami, Florida, according to boxing news from Dan Rafael.

For those fans who were hoping to see Cloud-Dawson, this has got to be a huge letdown because Griffin and Mack aren’t exactly appealing opponents. Mack was stopped in the 6th round by Glen Johnson last February, and that seems like a good reason why he shouldn’t be rewarded by getting a title shot after the one-sided loss to Johnson.

And Griffin, 33, was beaten in three consecutive fights to Enad Licina, Jeff Lacy and Marcus Oliveira between 2008 and 2009. And while Griffin has won his last four fights since then, the wins have come against tier opposition. It would be preferable to have Cloud take on someone that’s fighting well, and has beaten top level fighters during their careers.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Cloud fight Griffin if Griffin had at least beaten someone with a name in the past two years instead of B level fighters. Instead of facing Griffin or Mack, I’d like to see Cloud take on someone like Gabriel Campillo, Chris Henry, Nathan Cleverly or Adrian Diaconu.

Those would be interesting fights and I think they would give Cloud some problems. Cloud has beaten Clinton Woods and Glen Johnson in his last two fights. Those were good bouts, and Cloud looked decent, but kind of flawed at the same time.

I don’t see him beating Dawson or Jean Pascal. However, I think he and Beibut Shumenov are closely matched in terms of talent.