TAVORIS CLOUD W12 GLEN JOHNSON

Two good, tough 12-round title fights on HBO on Saturday night — that’s what fans like to see. Tavoris Cloud was a bit too young and powerful for Glen Johnson, but, as ever, the 41-year-old Jamaican from Miami put up a sterling effort and at times seemed on the brink of turning things around in this entertaining light-heavy title bout. In the main event, Devon Alexander had one of those life-and-death struggles with a very tough and determined Andriy Kotelnik, and although the unbeaten junior welter champion deservedly won in front of the hometown fans in St. Louis he was pushed to the limit.
 
The Cloud versus Johnson fight was one of those gruelling old-school wars of attrition. Johnson was busier but Cloud, a very determined 28-year-old from Tallahassee, FL, landed the bigger shots.
 
Cloud showed real grit to fight his way through some anxious spells. His left eye was a bit swollen underneath from the third round and he suffered a cut over the eye in the 10^th, but it was the younger man who predictably finished the stronger, taking the last three rounds on my TV scorecard. The three little-known judges (Fran Beachen from Iowa, Mike Fitzgerald of Wisconsin and Patrick Morley of Illinois) did a good job with identical scores of 116-112. For me it was a bit closer, 115-113, but there seemed no doubt that, as they say in the U.K., the winner won.
 
Johnson had an outstanding round in the third when he landed consistently with the jab and the right hand, but Cloud landed one of his big right hands in the fourth and roared at Johnson in a “Let’s fight!” type of way.
 
It seemed to me that age was catching up with Johnson a bit in the later rounds. He was busy but seemed to be “pushing” his punches. Cloud was being outworked, but the younger man seemed to know exactly what he was doing, letting Johnson have his way with what old-time American fight guys would call “pitty-pat” punches and then unloading his big, thudding shots. Once or twice I thought he might have Johnson on the way out, but the old warrior showed an amazing chin and a big heart.
 
I thought I detected some technical improvement in Cloud. He blocked punches better than I have seen him do in the past, he jabbed well at times, slipped a few punches and showed a James Toney-type roll-and-counter move in which he would rock his body away from Johnson’s right hand and then fire right back with his own right. Cloud was very impressive when he triggered off bursts of left hooks to head and body.
 
The biggest flaw with Cloud, I would say, is one that is not uncommon with fighters who are confident in their toughness and punching power in that he will wait a bit too long before letting fly, feeling that if the other man is punching but not hurting him then all is well and good. Of course, this is how the big hitters can get outhustled. That said, I always had the sense that another missile launch was coming from Cloud at any moment, even when Johnson was moving his hands and seemingly on his way to stealing rounds.
 
The Alexander-Kotelnik fight was a learning experience for the 23-year-old champion, who fought with blood streaming down the right side of his face from a cut over the eye in the closing rounds.
 
The unanimous scores in favour of Alexander — once again, 116-112 across the board — seemed fair although I saw it a bit tighter, once again 115-113. Alexander was throwing so many punches from his southpaw stance that a judge more or less had to give him most of the rounds, but Kotelnik was a stalwart aggressor and landed the more meaningful punches.
 
I liked the way that Alexander fired back after getting caught, and his speed and energy got him home against a durable craftsman whose constant-pressure style made this a much tougher night for the St. Louis boxer than generally anticipated.