by Geoffrey Ciani – It looked as if a deal was almost in place for light heavyweight contender Otis Griffin (23-6-2, 9 KOs) to challenge Tavoris Cloud (21-0, 18 KOs) for the IBF championship on December 17. Now it appears as if the fight is in jeopardy.
I spoke to Griffin today and he stated, “I just want to serve notice to the world that I’ll fight Tavoris Cloud tomorrow on his doorstep in Florida for the right amount of money. The money that was offered was a low-ball offer. There’s still an opportunity to fight for the world title, but at the same time, it’s something that I couldn’t have been proud about—especially going into Florida where they robbed me against Jeff Lacy and I have a family to feed and everything. If they go ahead and just meet us halfway, which would just be like 25% of what I should be making for a title fight, and we’re talking about money that Don King would pay his gardener to make this fight. I’m ready to put on my working boots and fly out there right now.”
If the fight between Griffin and Cloud cannot be salvaged, there is a strong likelihood that Griffin will square off against Adrian Diaconu in an IBF elimination bout. Griffin, however, still believes that a fight between him and Cloud can be made, “Yeah, the fight can be salvaged. It’s simple. I just wanted to serve notice to the world because a lot of people out there really don’t know how these things work. With a non-mandatory for a world title you have to fight somebody in the top fifteen. Right now I’m sitting at number ten and everybody before me has turned the fight down. Pretty much everybody turned it down in front of me, Yusaf Mack has turned it down behind me, and then there are two guys abroad that aren’t going to come over here for the kind of money that they’re offering for this fight. I’m just asking these guys to meet me halfway because I’m also up for the eliminator bout where I will become the number one contender and then I will be able to make a set amount of money. I’m thinking as a father and a as husband and as a wise businessman also. At the same time, the fight can be made like I said for just a fraction of that and it could be done tomorrow.”
In conclusion, Griffin had the following statement for IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud, “Hey, check it out Tavoris. We’re two throwback fighters, let’s go out here and give the fans what they came to see and that would be a straight-up 1970s throwback fight. We’re two guys that are in tremendous physical shape, two guys with tremendous will, and we just love to fight. We’re just two gladiators from the southeast of the world, me being from Alabama and him being from Tallahassee, Florida. Let’s do whatever we got to do man to get our two sides to make this happen.”
Griffin continued, “Right now they got it out there like I’m walking away from this fight, but the truth be told, I had the toughest schedule of any light heavyweight to present day in the division right now. I got more fights than all of the champions in the division. I fought Danny Green, I fought Byron Mitchell, I fought Jeff Lacy, and I have a reputation of going to people’s doorsteps to fight them. So this is nothing for me, and let’s be honest—the reason I had to go to Australia to fight Danny Green was because Tavoris Cloud turned me down when I had to defend against him for the NABO title. He turned it down, so hey, who’s really running from who?”
If the fight against Cloud does not materialize, Griffin said, “We hope to get eliminator done ASAP against Adrian Diaconu, but if it’s going to be on the projected Bute versus Pavlik under card during first quarter of 2011, we’ll wait.”
***
To learn more about “On the Ropes Boxing Radio:
Visit our official Website:
http://www.ontheropesboxingradio.com
Join our Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=231954175413&ref=ts
Or Follow us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/JennaOnTheRopes
To contact Geoffrey Ciani or Jenna J:
ontheropes@boxing247.com
To read more by Ciani or Jenna please visit The Mushroom Mag:
http://www.eatthemushroom.com/mag