Mandatory Eight Count: St. Louis Boxing After Dark Morning Edition

Storm Brewing In St. Louis: Tavoris Cloud vs. Glen Johnson Preview (The Boxing Bulletin)
Michael Nelson of our sister site The Boxing Bulletin has a great preview of the Cloud-Johnson fight, which it seems is the real main event in just about everybody's mind tonight. This is a pick'em fight right now, and a lot of folks, including myself and Mr. Nelson, feel this could be a fantastic action fight, too.

Devon Alexander's Survival Skills Translate into Ring Greatness (FanHouse)
You've probably heard Devon Alexander's story by now. His trainer/manager Kevin Cunningham recruited 29 kids from St. Louis' rough inner city into boxing. All these years later, at least nine are dead, and an estimated nine more have been jailed, including Vaughn Alexander, Devon's brother. So he's already a success story no matter where his career goes. Manny Steward thinks Alexander is already the best of the junior welterweights.

When opportunity knocks, Glen Johnson answers (ESPN.com)
Tavoris Cloud says he was "not impressed" by Glen Johnson's win over Yusaf Mack in February, but that he expects it to be a very good fight and calls Johnson "a good fighter." Johnson has a great line about the fight: "We're both going into the kitchen to do some cooking, and St. Louis will get the meal."

Cloud vs Johnson: The War 2010 Has Been Waiting For? (BoxingScene.com)
There is a lot of buzz around this fight right now. I'm mildly surprised, but it seems like everyone just has the same feeling that this one could be a real knock-down, drag-out affair.

King card fills Pacquiao-Mayweather void (New York Post)
A somewhat bizarre praising of Don King from George Willis. King has been promoting solid cards in St. Louis for years, and bombing everywhere else, except for the Jones-Trinidad exhibition in New York, which did a good PPV number and made some bank at the gate. And in no way does tonight's card, which is good but not outstanding by any stretch of the imagination, help anyone feel relief over the non-happening of Pacquiao-Mayweather, nor should it. This is a nice HBO Boxing After Dark card, but it also has what almost everybody feels will be a non-competitive main event, and to tout Cory Spinks-Cornelius Bundrage as some sort of special encounter is pretty silly.

Alexander-Bradley, Spinks-Angulo Double in The Works (BoxingScene.com)
The word is still that should he beat Andriy Kotelnik, Devon Alexander is going to fight Timothy Bradley in a highly-anticipated showdown on January 29. Now it sounds like another King/Shaw bout could be in the works as a co-feature, as there is talk of Cory Spinks (should he beat Cornelius Bundrage tonight) facing Alfredo Angulo on the same card.

Cloud brings thunder to ring (stltoday.com)
I was actually wondering last night how on earth his nickname is not Tavoris "Thunder" Cloud. I mean come on. He's even got the 90% KO rate right now to make it not look dumb.

Hill on Bundrage: "Maybe I have the more motivated guy in there." (MiamiHerald.com)
Trainer Javan Hill thinks that his fighter, Cornelius Bundrage, may be geared for an upset. I can't say I disagree with the thought. It's the first major title shot of the 37-year-old Bundrage's career, and there's a really good chance it's the only one he's ever going to get.