Tavoris Cloud Prepares for Fight with Glen Johnson
Saturday IBF light-heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud will defend his title against journeyman Glen “the Road Warrior” Johnson in a battle that probably won’t see a title switch hands, but will nonetheless be entertaining and demonstrative of Cloud’s ability in the ring.
“I got involved in boxing when I was 16 years old in Tallahassee, Florida,” Cloud recently confirmed. “With my amateur coach Alonzo Johnson. After the amateurs were over, I started working with Al Bonanni after a few pro fights and then we went world champion and now he have our first defense against Glen Johnson.”
While on the one hand the fight looks patently one dimensional, Johnson has proved that age hasn't hampered him much, battling his way up the ranks as his career has gone on. Not only that, but he stands alone as the only man who almost beat Chad Dawson. And he’s never been knocked down. Meaning that if Cloud can knock him down or out, he’ll be able to bank on getting his name out there to a larger public.
In a recent interview with Max Boxing, Cloud stated that he grew up in a tough Florida neighbourhood where fighting was often an unfortunate necessity to survival. “We grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood so we got in fights now and again,” Cloud said. “I was pretty good with my hands already so I just started as a way to make something out of myself. From the start, the first fight in the amateurs, I knew I was going to put 100% into it.”
When Cloud was still a blooming amateur he was picked up by veteran trainer Al Bonanni, who had been out of the business for some time. Nevertheless, he heard about Cloud in Miami, and immediately was devoted to training the amateur prospect. He told his uncle, also a boxing manager, “this kid here could be champion. And if you want to come back into business, I think he can be world champion.’”
Since then Bonanni has worked to build Cloud’s assets, and most notably his stunning power and aggression.
“First of all I like punchers. I always think punchers appeal to television, to the masses. They like punchers. They like the [Marvin] Haglers,” Bonanni said, who agrees that Cloud fights much the same way as the legendary Hagler.
On his upcoming fight with the 41-year old Johnson, Cloud said: “Well, number one, Glen Johnson is not the fighter he used to be. He has slowed down a lot. I’ll approach Glen Johnson with the state of mind like I am going to war and I know what the game plan is and the game plan will be executed. And you know, it would be no backing down. No nothing. Everything that he is, everything that he stands for, it’s my job to tear it down and break it apart and that is what I plan to do. My state of mind for the Glen Johnson fight is kill or be killed.”
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