By Jason Kim: HBO is reportedly interested in a potential bout between IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (22-0, 18 KO’s) vs. unbeaten former two time world champion Zsolt Erdei (32-0, 17 KOs), according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

The fight matches Cloud, a fighter with good power and a high work rate against one of the best light heavyweights from 2004 to 2009 in Erdei. The winner of this fight would then, if all goes as planned, take on the winner of the Bernard Hopkins vs. Jean Pascal, and Chad Dawson fights. This, of course, would have to be agreed on by the winner of those series of fights.

Hopkins may or not be willing to take on the winner of the Cloud-Erdei fight, because Hopkins is talking about wanting to fight IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute, provided that Hopkins can get past both Pascal and the winner of Dawson vs. TBA on May 21st. We don’t know who will emerge the winner in those fights, but if it’s Dawson or Pascal, you can bet that they would be interested in taking on the Erdei vs. Cloud winner. That would be a good fight for them, as it would for Hopkins if he’s not in a big rush to face Bute.

Cloud, 29, is coming off a one-sided 12 round decision over Fulgencio Zuniga last December. Before that, Cloud struggled to beat 41-year-old Glen Johnson by a 12 round decision in August 2010. Cloud looked vulnerable and had problems with Johnson’s high work rate.

Erdei, 36, last defeated Samson Onyango by an eight round unanimous decision last November. Before that, Erdei defeated Giacobbe Fragomeni by a 12 round majority decision in November 2009 to capture his WBC cruiserweight paper title. Erdei was smart enough to vacate the title rather than try his luck against some of the bigger, stronger cruiserweights, who likely would have beaten him.