By Geno McGahee

The 48 year old former middleweight champion, Bernard Hopkins, 53-6-2, 32 KO’s, proved too cagy for the younger IBF light heavyweight champion, Tavoris Cloud, 24-1, 19 KO’s, out-boxing him en route to a wide decision win by scores of 117-111 and 116-112 (twice).

Hopkins knows how to control fighters like Cloud. He did the same thing to Kelly Pavlik. Slow plodders have little to no chance to defeat Hopkins unless they catch him. Cloud wasn’t busy enough to make the openings happen. He fell into Bernard’s game and didn’t gamble. He just followed Hopkins around the ring and allowed him to maul him, hit him, and tie him up when he wanted to.

It’s hard to imagine that Hopkins can go much longer, but we’ve been saying that for 10 years.