Undefeated light heavyweight Tavoris Cloud won the vacant IBF title with a dominant twelve round unanimous decision over former champion Clinton Woods on Saturday night. All three judges ruled the bout in favor of Cloud, 116-112, though Cloud appeared to win an even wider decision.
Other than round two, in which he outlanded Cloud and snapped his head up with uppercuts several times, Woods struggled with Cloud, ten years his junior, all night. Cloud battered Woods against the ropes for much of rounds three and seven and both hurt and wobbled Woods badly in round eight. Referee Telis Assimenios, who is notorious for stopping the first Hasim Rahman-David Tua fight prematurely, watched closely, but Woods kept punching back, much like Rahman did that night against Tua. This time, Assimenios correctly allowed the bout to continue.
But for Woods, that only meant four more rounds of being punished as Cloud swept the rest of the fight and went on to take the title. Woods arguably could have won two more rounds, four and five, but probably didn’t deserve any more than round two. He fell to 0-3 in fights that have taken place in the United States.
Cloud, who went twelve rounds for the first time in his career, went on to call out Chad Dawson after the fight, claiming Dawson was ducking him by fighting older opponents like Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Now that he has Dawson’s former belt, Cloud’s chances of getting a fight with Dawson have likely improved, especially if Dawson beats Johnson in November and can’t land a bigger fight. For now, Cloud should be content with the biggest win of his career.
