The 48 year old Bernard Hopkins has not fought in nearly a year and is coming off a majority decision loss to Chad Dawson last April. Boxing Fans did finally see BHop’s age catch up to him in that fight; however, I would not count out Hopkins tonight,March 9, 2013, against the relatively unknown IBF Light Heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud at Barclays Center which will be televised live on HBO.
Cloud has not fought in over a year when he won a very controversial split decision over Gabriel Campillo in a Don King promoted event in Corpus Christi, Texas last February. Tonight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Cloud will still be an unknown fighter against who has overall been an ageless wonder in Hopkins. BHop is by the far the more popular fighter, and whether you love or hate his sleeper and dirty boxing style of counter punching and clenching; Bernard Hopkins always seems to amaze us every time you think he is over the hill and father time has caught up to him.
Unless Cloud is able to do what most everyone else before him has failed to do (physically overwhelm or knock him out), Cloud almost 20 years younger than Hopkins, will continue to be an unknown fighter in a weight class that already lacks in popularity.
That said, and I say this with a joking smirk, I believe Hopkins is going to somehow come out with a win, deserving or not at the end of the day. That’s boxing, and unfortunately for Cloud, he will likely be another light heavyweight that has come and gone. See Chad Dawson and Jean Pascal, lol. AND NEW…. Stay tuned for the ageless wonder.