By Dan Ambrose: Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) failed at beating WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) last Saturday night in a fight that Hopkins was knocked down twice in and had to rally just to turn it into a majority draw. Since the World Boxing Council president Jose Sulaiman has decided not to force Pascal to give Hopkins an immediate rematch, Hopkins now is going to have to cool his heels and just wait his turn and hope he can do better next time against Pascal.

However, fightnews.com is reporting that IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud is willing to fight Hopkins on the undercard of Pascal’s next fight against two-time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson. The winner of those two fights would then face each other for what would be a lot more interesting fight than if Hopkins were to immediately fight Pascal in a rematch.

The winner of all of those fights would then take on the winner of the light heavyweight unification bout between WBA champion Beibut Shumenov and WBO title holder Jurgen Braehmer, which takes place next month on January 8th in Kazakhstan. What we would have here is a mini light heavyweight tournament with all the light heavyweights facing off and the winner of the fights being pretty much crowned as the best fighter in the division. I see this as a win-win situation for Hopkins and all the fighters involved.

Cloud (22-0, 18 KO’s) would be a huge test for Hopkins, because unlike Pascal, Cloud would be standing in front of Hopkins forcing him to fight hard for 12 rounds. He wouldn’t hit and run the way that Pascal was doing in the fight. Cloud throws a lot of punches and is an excellent inside fighter with good power. I can see Cloud giving Hopkins a tremendous amount of problems because Cloud appears to be a better inside fighter than Hopkins, throws with more, has better stamina and is capable of fighting hard for three minutes of every round without needing rest breaks the way that Hopkins often does.

For Hopkins, it would be a great fight for him to sell his rematch with Pascal, because if he can decisively beat Cloud, it would make his fight with Pascal much more meaningful. Plus, Cloud is an exciting fighter who throws a lot of punches. If Hopkins-Cloud fight would have to be an exciting fight, because if Hopkins tried to punch and clinch his way to victory, he’d get beaten up and out-worked.

My guess is Hopkins won’t want anything to do with Cloud because of how hard he would have to work to beat this guy. I guess I wouldn’t blame him but it would be a smart move for him to man up and take this fight if he wants to build up his rematch with Pascal.