Cloud vs Pascal: Fight Set For August 11 in Quebec, Showtime Televising

Tavoris Cloud will defend his IBF light heavyweight title against former division champion Jean Pascal on August 11 in Quebec, Rick Reeno reports at BoxingScene.com. As expected, the fight will be in Quebec, with Showtime televising.

Pascal (26-2-1, 16 KO) will be fighting for the first time since May 2011, meaning by the time he faces Cloud, he'll have been out of the ring for 15 months. That's a concern against an aggressive, strong fighter like Cloud (24-0, 19 KO), who has stamina issues but does come very hard early. If Pascal is rusty, that could be a real problem.

But Pascal will also have home field advantage, which could be a big help for him on the cards and just because he has home field advantage.

It will be the fifth title defense for the 30-year-old Cloud. He won the vacant belt against Clinton Woods in August 2009, and has made successful defenses against Glen Johnson, Fulgencio Zuniga, Yusaf Mack, and Gabriel Campillo, the latter a highly questionable Texas decision in February.

Pascal, of course, was last seen in the ring losing to Bernard Hopkins.

The bout will give Showtime back-to-back "Championship Boxing" weekends in a month that has traditionally been dead air for pro boxing. Devon Alexander will fight on August 18 on the nework, with speculation that he'll be facing new WBA welterweight titleholder Paulie Malignaggi.

Reeno also reports, as a side note, that Adonis Stevenson (who shares a promoter with Pascal in Yvon Michel) has been nixed as a potential opponent for Thomas Oosthuizen. It seems likely that Stevenson (18-1, 15 KO) will be in the Showtime co-feature on August 11.