IBF Light Heavyweight Champion Tavoris Cloud will be entering the ring against Gabriel Campillo of Spain in an attempt to successfully defend his title for the fourth time in Corpus Christi, Texas on Feb 18. Cloud was originally supposed to defend his belt against challenger Zsolt Erdei on a nationally-televised New Year’s Eve boxing special, but Erdei pulled out after injuring his hand.
Cloud claims that Erdei didn’t want to fight and was looking for an easy escape route. This is how Campillo found himself with an unexpected title shot. Campillo isn’t new to title fights though since he is a former WBA Light Heavyweight Champion.
The 30-year-old Cloud is unbeaten and enters the ring with an impressive record of 24-0, with 19 KOs. However, he hasn’t been very active lately with just four fights in the last three years. That’s one of the reasons why he’s one of the most unheard of and most underrated world boxing champions. He said he’s glad Campillo stepped up to the plate as he didn’t want to wait any longer to fight.
He added that he doesn’t have any special plans for his opponent as he treats everybody the same. Cloud said he just wants to beat whoever they put in front of him without overanalyzing the situation. He’s been in training for the last four months and will be looking to add another knockout to his record. He said he’ll be going after Campillo as soon as the bell rings to start the fight. He feels boxing fans like knockouts and he doesn’t want to give the judges any reason to render a controversial decision when he fights.
Cloud of Tallahassee, Florida captured the vacant IBF crown back in August 2009 with a unanimous decision over Clinton Woods. He defended it against Fulgencio Zuniga and Glen Johnson by unanimous decisions and knocked out Yusef Mack in the eighth round in his last fight in June.
The 33-year-old Campillo is a southpaw with a decent record, but doesn’t have much at all in the way of power. He comes into the fight with a 21-3-1 mark with just eight KOs. He won his title in June of 2009 with a majority decision over Hugo Hernan Garay and then lost it in January 2010 when Beibut Shumenov beat him by a split decision.
Campillo now trains in Oxnard, Calif., with WBC Middleweight Champion Sergio Martinez. He won two fights after losing his belt and was then held to a draw by Karo Murat last October in a title eliminator. Campillo said he’s ready to take on Cloud and took some positives out of his disappointing draw with Murat.
Look for Cloud to fight the same aggressive way he always does. Campillo doesn’t have the power to hurt the champion and we’ll likely see Cloud walk through his opponent’s punches and stop him in the first half of the fight.
I haven’t been able to find the fight online, but I suggest you check out some of our recommended online sportsbooks to see if the odds come up closer to the match date. Most of the time 5Dimes.com is the place to bet on boxing online, so hopefully they will add some lines for this fight.
Gabriel Campillo betting • Tavoris Cloud betting