Stevenson stops Cloud to keep title
Adonis Stevenson retained the WBC light heavyweight title Saturday night at the Bell Centre when Tavoris Cloud failed to answer the bell for the eighth round after sustaining a cut over his right eye.
Stevenson (22-1) successfully defended the title he won in June with a first-round knockout of Chad Dawson.
Cloud (24-2), the former IBF champion, also was cut on the left eyelid in the opening round.
Stevenson, from Blainville, Quebec, is the only Canadian currently with a world title. He stung Cloud with a stiff left in the opening round that left the cut and swelling on his eyelid.
Cloud rebounded in the second, but the right-hander rarely used his right hand. That drew taunting from Stevenson, who twice stood before his opponent with his arms stretched out, daring him to throw a punch.
''I'm proud, because I worked hard and I showed I can box,'' Stevenson said. ''I did everything according to my game plan.
''My corner said to go to the body. I knew the longer it went on it would be in my favor because I was wearing him down.''
Stevenson's next fight is to be a mandatory defense against England's Tony Bellew, likely early next year.
''I'm not 5-foot-10 like Cloud and I'm not scared or intimidated by Adonis Stevenson,'' said the 6-foot-3 Bellew. ''I'll come with a game plan and execute it.''
On the undercard, former champion Jean Pascal stopped George Blades with three knockdowns in the fifth round in a light heavyweight fight. Pascal (28-2-1) used the fight as a tuneup bout for his scheduled match in January with fellow Montreal fighter Lucian Bute. Blades is 23-5-2.
''This does me an enormous amount of good,'' Pascal said after his first knockout since 2009. ''I'm a guy with power, but it had been a long time since I knocked anyone out. Now, I'll go into camp with more confidence.''
In a matchup of Colombian light heavyweights, Eleider Alvarez unanimously outpointed Edison Miranda in a 10-round bout to improve to 13-0. Alvarez had winning scores of 99-90, 97-92 and 95-94.