By Mark Vester
The team of undefeated light heavyweight contender Tavoris Cloud (19-0, 18KOs) will look to get IBF champion Chad Dawson stripped by the sanctioning body. Jerry Attardi, who manages Cloud, said that he plans to make a purse-bid offer at the IBF's convention in Panama, and he will ask the sanctioning body to strip Dawson of the title if he doesn't give his fighter the mandatory shot.
The news comes on the back of the recent disclosure on BoxingScene.com that early negotiations have begun to stage a fall rematch between Dawson and Glen Johnson.
Cloud won a mandatory title eliminator last August with a stoppage of Julio Gonzalez. Attardi will likely tell the IBF that Dawson had his voluntary defense when he met Antonio Tarver in a recent rematch, and ask the the sanctioning body to enforce the rule of Dawson making a mandatory defense within 90-days of the eliminator being completed. That would put Dawson in a tangle. He is under a two-fight deal with HBO. The network is sure to approve a rematch with Johnson as the second fight of the deal, but not likely to approve a fight with Cloud, who is only known to hardcore boxing fans.
"Everybody is talking about (Dawson) fighting somebody else but we are going to Panama to mandate that he fights for the title," Attardi told the Tallahassee Democrat. "We will see what happens."
Cloud is tired of waiting. If he does get Dawson stripped, then a fight would take place with Clinton Woods for the vacant belt.
"The way I feel about boxing right now; it's not real at the top," Cloud told the paper. "I'm just going to fight anybody they put in front of me as long as it is for the championship."
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