By Dan Ambrose: Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) will be trying to become the oldest fighter to ever win a world title when he takes on IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19 KO’s) on March 9th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Hopkins will be turning 48 on January 15th, and that’ll make him the oldest fighter to capture a world title if he can get past the 30-year-old Cloud, who will be making his fifth defense of his title.
This will be a tough fight for Hopkins because Cloud likes to throw a lot of punches and that’s the kind of opponent that Hopkins doesn’t match up well against now that he’s gotten older and is throwing a lot less punches. It’s probably not realistic that Hopkins can keep up with Cloud because he simply doesn’t have the stamina to throw as many punches as Cloud does.
Hopkins’ only chance of winning this fight is if he can either move around on the outside to where Cloud can’t reach him with his shots, and then come forward quickly to land first, and then tie Cloud up in a wrestling clinch. Then when the referee separates them, Hopkins can repeat the process with another punch followed by a clinch. This strategy has worked well for Hopkins in many of his other fights in the past, and it might work against the limited Cloud.
Hopkins lost his last fight to Chad Dawson by a 12 round majority decision last April. Hopkins didn’t throw a lot of punches in that fight and he didn’t look that good. Hopkins’ game seems to have slipped a couple of notches since he defeated WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal by a 12 round decision in May of last year.
Cloud is coming off of a controversial 12 round split decision last February over Gabriel Campillo in a fight that many boxing fans felt that Campillo should have won it.
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