Bad Left Hook

Here's promoter Don King, the man behind still-reigning IBF light heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud, discussing the controversial scoring in last night's Cloud win over Gabriel Campillo:

Don King: "It was an electric fight, it was something that you'd do again. It was a fight where the guy was very colorful, but the devastating punches and the most power punches were from the champion (Cloud). And the referees, I have to commend them, and the judges, for doing a great job, because it could have went either way from the way it colorfully looked, but the effectiveness of the fight, it was all the champ."

After that -- which is debatable, since Campillo landed a lot more power punches than Cloud (148 to 71 on the Showtime stats) -- King rambles about Whitney Houston and flags flying half-mast in New Jersey, which, I dunno, whatever, Don King being Don King and all.

Then he says he'll do a rematch in a stadium in Florida in front of 100,000 fans, which is now the stupidest thing anyone in boxing has said all year, including me.

Don King: "We're calling out everybody, from Bernard Hopkins to Chad Dawson to Pasquale (Jean Pascal), everybody that could be there, Bute, anybody that wants it, they gotta come and get it. ... Nobody has beat him yet. ... If they wanna question his ability, step in the ring and fight."

While Tavoris Cloud believes it's "BS" that other fighters don't want to fight him because they don't want to deal with his promoter, the fact is that's a reality. His promoter is the king of "BS." He's not going to get fights with those guys because King will want options on them if they win, and they're going to turn that down. They have no reason to fight him if his promoter is trying to drive some hard bargain like it's 1975 and he's still a top promoter.

Does Cloud ever look around and ask himself why everyone leaves King? He's got no legitimate stars in his stable. Ask Cornelius Bundrage, who this week made the decision to leave King, because he found out Don can't or won't get him fights that he wants. Ask Devon Alexander, who recently did the same. When Cloud signed with King, I cringed -- I knew what his future held, and it's this.

This is nothing against Tavoris Cloud, who is a pretty good, fan friendly fighter and deserves better. Sooner or later, he's going to figure it out, and he's going to realize that King has done anything but maximize his potential.