Urango defends title against Bailey; Cloud wins vacant title over Woods
By APSaturday, August 29, 2009
Urango stops Bailey to keep 140-pound title
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Juan Urango overcame a sixth-round knockdown to stop Randall Bailey in the 11th round Friday night and retain his IBF junior welterweight title.
Earlier in the night, up-and-coming star Tavoris Cloud won the vacant IBF light-heavyweight belt with a unanimous decision over former champion Clinton Woods.
Urango tilted the fight in his favor when he dropped Bailey with a left to the head midway through the ninth round. The two-time 140-pound champion reached his feet by the count of nine, but Urango (22-2-1, 17 KOs) backed him to the ropes, where he scored with two more lefts.
Later in the ninth, Urango floored Bailey (39-7) again with another left, and Bailey’s legs remained wobbly in the 10th until Urango sent him to the canvas a third time.
His left eye was severely swollen, Bailey’s trainer, John David Jackson, stepped up onto the ring apron and called for referee Tommy Kimmons to stop the fight with 1:51 left in the 11th.
The victory was Urango’s first in his second reign as IBF junior welterweight champion. He won the belt with a decision over Herman Ngoudjo on Jan. 30, but moved up in weight for an unsuccessful title bid against WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto.
Fighting before friends and family from Tallahassee, Fla., Cloud pressured Woods with left hooks to the head and body through the night.
Although he was dominating anyway, Cloud put his British opponent in trouble late in the eighth, when he backed Woods into a corner with a left to the head. The 27-year-old Cloud (20-0) followed with unanswered combinations to the head, nearly putting the veteran to the floor.
Although Woods (42-5-1) gamely survived the rest of the bout, the native of Sheffield, England, never mounted a rally. He wound up losing by 116-112 scores on all three scorecards.
Cloud ended up winning the IBF title that Chad Dawson had to vacate when he decided to face Glen Johnson in a highly anticipated fight Nov. 7 in Connecticut.
