Tavoris Cloud - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tavoris Karod Cloud is an American professional boxer born in Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and the current IBF light heavyweight champion.

Early life

When interviewed by ESPN, Tavoris Cloud explained that he had a tough childhood.His neighbourhood, as he recalled, was very rough. He lived in a small home that housed at times 10-15 people. It was a very poor environment. He went on to explain how meager his family's situation was, and spoke on how his family used a foot hole with Ice in it as a fridge. His mother Emma Smith, reflected upon the day that Tavoris Cloud declared that he was going to take care of this situation. He was around 14-15 years of age. Alonzo Johnson,(his coach), trained and housed Tavoris during his high school years. Tavoris has been training with Alonzo since his Amateur days. Alonzo Johnson can be seen working in his corner along side Al Bonanni during fights. Al Bonanni, a recent Florida Boxing Hall of Famer is his professional boxing trainer, and has been for the past 5 years.

Career

Cloud started boxing at 17 and had a 46-8 amateur record, representing his country at the 2000 U19 world championships. He lost the final of the 2002 US-championships to Curtis Stevens.

His record is 22-0 (18) including a KO of Aaron Williams

Aaron Williams (boxer)

Aaron Williams is an American boxer.-Amateur:As a young man he trained for 3 years under the tutelage of Emanuel Steward, 90-8 record as an amateur although Cyberboxing lists him as 93-10....

conqueror Jose Luis Herrera.

On August 8, 2008, at the Aragon Ballroom

Aragon Ballroom (Chicago)

The Aragon Ballroom is the name of a ballroom in Chicago, Illinois.Located on West Lawrence Avenue approximately five miles north of downtown in the Uptown neighborhood, it was built in 1926 and designed in the Moorish architectural style with the interior resembling a Spanish village and named...

in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Cloud defeated former WBO light-heavyweight champion Julio César González

Julio Cesar Gonzalez

Julio César González Ibarra is a Mexican boxer and the former Lineal & WBO light heavyweight champion.Gonzalez was born in Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, and still claims Mexico as his native country although he has lived in the United States for several years...

by technical knockout in the tenth round in an IBF

International Boxing Federation

The International Boxing Federation or IBF is one of four major organizations recognized by IBHOF which sanction world championship boxing bouts, alongside the WBA, WBC and WBO.- History :...

light heavyweight title eliminator. Cloud set the tempo of the fight early, hurting Gonzalez with a right cross

Cross (boxing)

In boxing, a cross is a power-punch like the uppercut and hook. Compubox, a computerized punch scoring system, counts the cross as a power-punch....

in dominating the first round. It was more of the same in the next two rounds, although Gonzalez made the third round the most competitive. He kept the fight in the middle of the ring, but Cloud kept sending him back with uppercuts and left hooks

Hook (boxing)

A hook is a punch in boxing. It is performed by turning the core muscles and back, thereby swinging the arm, which is bent at an angle near or at 90 degrees, in a horizontal arc into the opponent...

. With González taking a beating for the majority of the fight, in round ten, the referee stopped the fight after Cloud landed a right hand.

Recent fights

Tavoris won the IBF light heavyweight title against durable Englishman Clinton Woods

Clinton Woods

Clinton Woods , is a retired professional boxer from Sheffield, England. He is the former IBF, European, British, & Commonwealth light heavyweight champion....

by way of a 12 round unanimous decision after former champion Chad Dawson

Chad Dawson

"Bad" Chad Dawson is an American boxer from Hartsville, South Carolina, USA, and the former WBC & IBF light heavyweight champion. Dawson is rated by The Ring Magazine as the number four Light Heavyweight boxer in the world.-Early life:...

vacated the belt. (It is argued in the boxing community that Chad Dawson vacated the IBF belt to avoid Tavoris Cloud, whom he represented the country with during his amateur career. However,this arguement can not be concluded as fact.) The fight against Clinton Woods took place on August 28. Cloud threw well over 1000 punches in the fight which is well over the average for that weight division.

Cloud defeated Glen Johnson by unanimous decision on August 7, 2010.

Cloud faced the Columbian knockout artist Fulgencio Zuniga (24-5-1 (20 KO))for a title defense and earned a unanimous decision.

Following the Zuniga win, Cloud improved his record with another TKO decision over Yusaf Mack.

The professional record of Cloud now stands at:
|23 Wins| 19 TKOs/KOs| 0 Draws| 0 Losses|.

He now faces Hungarian Fighter Zsolts Erdei on December 31st, 2011 at the Historic Anaheim Convention Center in California, On Showtime TV. http://sports.sho.com/#/boxing/events/cloud-vs-erdei

Professional boxing record

|align="center" colspan=8|23 Wins (19 knockouts, 4 decisions), 0 Losses (0 by knockout, 0 by decision), 0 Draws
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| align="center" style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Notes
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Zsolt Erdei

Zsolt Erdei is a Hungarian boxer in the light heavyweight division. He is the former undefeated Lineal & WBO light heavyweight champion, and WBC cruiserweight champion. Erdei is also the first Hungarian to win a world title in two weight divisions.Erdei boxed at the 2000 Summer Olympics...

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