By Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-2-1, 16 Ko’s) will be facing IBF light heavyweight champ Tavoris Cloud (22-0, 18 KO’s) next, as long as the 29-year-old Cloud wins his next fight next month on June 25th against Yusaf Mack (29-3-2, 17 KO’s). Cloud will likely win that fight, setting up a bout against Pascal for the summer on HBO. Pascal was recently beaten by 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins last weekend.

It was a disappointing performance from Pascal, as he showed an inability to fight for more than brief spurts against Hopkins and ended up giving away the fight by not fighting consistently. Like in the first Hopkins fight, Pascal looked exhausted after the 4th round and was no longer really competitive after that. Against a nonstop puncher like Cloud, who can average 70 to 80 punches thrown in every round, Pascal will have very little chance to win the fight. It’s doubtful that Pascal can fix his stamina problems enough to beat a punching machine like Cloud.

To beat Cloud, you have stand in front of him and try to match him punch for punch the way that Glen Johnson did. But even Johnson couldn’t keep up with him and ended up losing by a 12 round decision. A four round type fighter like Pascal will be over-matched out of his league against a guy that can throw massive amounts of shots like Cloud. It’s great that Pascal is willing to step back up to the plate to face a champion, but this is the wrong kind of fighter for Pascal to be taking on with his style. Pascal does better against guys that throw few punches and fight at a slow pace like Chad Dawson rather than a guy like Cloud, who is like a human tsunami.