Cloud vs. Campillo on February 18th on Showtime

By Boxing News - 01/16/2012 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (23-0, 19 KO’s) will be making his fourth defense of his International Boxing Federation title on February 18th against replacement opponent Gabriel Campillo (21-3-1, 8 KO’s) in a fight that will be televised by Showtime at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.

This fight will be part of a card with Paul Williams (40-2, 27 KO’s)vs. Nobuhiro Ishida (24-6-2, 9 KO’s) and Chris Arreola (34-2, 29 KO’s) vs. TBA. It’s hoped that all three fights make it on Showtime and it’s cut to just two fights, which happens at times unfortunately.

Cloud, 30, was supposed to be facing Zsolt Erdei but he was injured and the fight was cancelled. Luckily for Cloud, former WBA World light heavyweight champion Campillo was able to step in and face Cloud. As it turns out, Campillo may be an even tougher opponent than Erdei, because Campillo can do more just jab, which is pretty much all Erdei does.

Campillo likes to throw a lot of punches and is good at beating his opposition through sheer numbers thrown at them. He lost his World Boxing Association title to Beibut Shumenov by a controversial 12 round split decision in January 2010. Many boxing fans thought that Campillo deserved to get the win in the Shumenov fight, and I’m one of them. He fought really well outworked Shumenov. Campillo won his next two fights before fighting to a 12 round draw against Karo Murat in Germany in what was another controversial fight. I had Campillo winning that fight by four rounds easy. But a draw in Germany is considered a good thing for visiting fighters, so Campillo should consider himself lucky to have received that.

Cloud beat Clinton Woods by a 12 round decision in August 2009 to claim the title. Since then, Cloud has beaten Glen Johnson by a close 12 round decision, Fulgencio Zuniga by a 12 round decision in December 2010 and then Yusaf Mack by an 8th round TKO win in June 2011. That was the only fight for Cloud in 2011.



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