Boxing Betting Odds
Tavoris Cloud vs Gabriel Campillo Odds: Cloud Favored to Retain
By Scott Christ@scblh1 Feb 18, 2012, 7:30am EST
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Tavoris Cloud is expected to keep his IBF belt tonight in Texas. (Photo by Sumio Yamada/Goossen Tutor Promotions)
Gabriel Campillo may be a tough challenger and a legitimately good fighter, but oddsmakers and most boxing fans are betting that his style won't give him any help on the scorecards tonight in Texas, where he faces IBF light heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud on Showtime.
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Cloud (23-0, 19 KO) is the more aggressive man, and that is generally favored by American judges. Campillo (21-3-1, 8 KO) is a very talented fighter and may indeed be a better well-rounded boxer, but his style just isn't likely to do him any favors. He's going to have to either stop Cloud or seriously outshine him to get any help from the judges. And the talent level likely isn't big enough for Campillo to dominate, even if it's in his favor, which is arguable to begin with.
Actually, our friend Carlos Acevedo of The Cruelest Sport summed it up pretty perfectly:
[B]ecause Cloud's punches have the zip that Campillo's arsenal lacks, any debatable round will be a Cloud round, regardless if Campillo is the more accurate of the two. Campillo, Madrid, Spain, dropped close – sometimes dubious – decisions against Beibut Shumenov and Karo Murat, and Cloud is a far more violent puncher than either of those two. He'll need to conclusively outwork his younger adversary to have a realistic chance of winning the title.
It's just not likely that Campillo leaves the States and heads back to Spain with the IBF title in his grasp (well, not with it, I guess -- awaiting its arrival in the mail later when he's made a new belt of his own). It's not because he's not good, it's because he's not good enough, or I guess, because he's not "right."