Weights: Stevenson 173.8, Cloud 174.6

By Eric Thomas: Adonis Stevenson weighed in at 173.8 lbs. at today’s weigh-in for his fight tomorrow night on HBO against Tavoris Cloud in Montreal. Canada. Cloud weighed a little heavier at 174.6 lbs.

The fight very well could be the more exciting bout on the night in a split-site double-header with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fighting Brian Vera.

Stevenson has blazing fast hands, and really good power to go along with it. He’s knocked out his last 9 opponents, and he won’t have problems landing his shots on Saturday night against Cloud.

Stevenson wants to get Cloud out of the way so that he can get bigger fights in the future against the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Andre Ward and Carl Froch. Those fights, if they ever materialize, will need to wait until Stevenson defends his title against his mandatory challenger Tony Bellew in early 2014.

That could be a tougher fight in theory than the Cloud match-up, because Bellew can punch, he’s big, and he’s capable of adapting to win his fights.

Cloud is taking this fight at the wrong moment in his career, because he hasn’t looked really good for quite some time. Cloud’s last really good performance was when he beat Glen Johnson three years ago in 2010. Cloud hasn’t looked all that great recently in defeating Yusaf Mack and Gabriel Campillo.

In Cloud’s last fight, he lost to Bernard Hopkins by a 12 round unanimous decision in a one-sided bout earlier this year. Hopkins was able to out-box Cloud, and keep him from taking advantage of his youth and high work rate.

If Hopkins was able to do that against Cloud, then there’s a good chance that Stevenson will be able to do it as well. Stevenson is going to try and stop Cloud, but if he’s unable to do that then he’s going to follow the Hopkins blueprint by focusing on winning the fight by a decision.

This will be Stevenson’s first defense of his WBC light heavyweight title, and he’s hoping that he can defend the belt for a long time. At 36, he might not have a lot of time left before he starts showing signs of age. Some fighters age better than others, and Stevenson seems to be one of them so far.