Cleverly could face Bellew next in a mismatch

By Sean McDaniel: For his first title defense, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (22-0, 11 KO’s) could end up dipping down to the very bottom of the World Boxing Organization light heavyweight rankings to hand pick No.15 ranked Tony Bellew (16-0, 10 KO’s) as his next opponent for September.

If not then, Cleverly will likely face Bellew in December for a money fight. It’s not the best guy that Cleverly can fight, but it’s a fight that would sell in the UK, as Bellew is from Liverpool. Bellew has very little experience against quality fighters and looked absolutely horrible in his last two fights against journeyman Ovil McKenzie.

Bellew was knocked down a couple of times by McKenzie in their first fight last December and then fought a boring safety first fight that would have made David Haye proud in his second fight with him last weekend in a 12 round decision victory. Cleverly’s father Vince had this to say to the BBC Sport: “Nathan’s there for Tony Bellew anytime, he could probably take this fight before we go for a mandatory challenger. But I know if this fight with Bellew doesn’t come off soon then Nathan will have to fight a mandatory challenger, [Dmitriy] Sukhotsky, the Russian guy.”

Hopefully, Cleverly skips on the idea of fighting Bellew and getting an easy win in a boring fight. Bellew really needs to prove himself first as being worthy to fight for a title and frankly I don’t think he’s done that. Beating an journeyman isn’t enough. Bellew needs to at least take on someone like Karo Murat, Yusuf Mack or Adrian Diaconu before getting a shot against Cleverly. I think all of those guys would knock Bellew out and beat him with no problems whatsoever.

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