Bellew: Cleverly is one of the weaker champions

By Boxing News - 10/14/2011 - Comments

Image: Bellew: Cleverly is one of the weaker championsBy Scott Gilfoid: Challenger Tony Bellew (16-0, 10 KO’s) has to call a spade a spade in taking on WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (22-0, 11 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew sees Cleverly, along with WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov, as one of the weak leaks in the division. I totally agree with you, Mr. Bellew. I’ve always seen Cleverly as the weakest link among the champions.

Bellew as quoted by the liverpoolecho, said “Nathan and Beibut Shumenov are the weaker champions…I don’t think Cleverly belongs in the same bracket as the likes of Zsolt Erdei, Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson and Jean Pascal.”

Bellew, who punches like horse, thought that a fight with Cleverly would happen at some point down the line so that it would be a bigger fight. However, he doesn’t mind at all that it’s happening now. Bellew feels he’s ready to fight the likes of Shumenov and Gabriel Campillo right now, but thinks he needs more experience before he faces quality fighters like Hopkins, Pascal and Dawson. The thing is Bellew won’t have much of an opportunity to delay fighting one of those guys should he beat Cleverly on Saturday because the general idea is for the Bellew-Cleverly winner to face the winner of the Hopkins vs. Dawson fight on Saturday. Whether he likes it or not, Bellew could find himself facing Hopkins or Dawson next in what would be a tremendous leap up in competition.

Oh yeah, I agree with Bellew that Cleverly doesn’t belong in the same bracket as Erdei, Hopkins, Dawson and Pascal. Heck, Cleverly barely beat Aleksy Kuziemski in his last fight in May when Cleverly was staggered by a big right hand in the 3rd by Kuziemski. Can you imagine what Bellew is going to do to Cleverly on Saturday? It’s not going to be pretty.

David Haye doesn’t know who to pick between Cleverly and Bellew, and sees it as a bout that can go either way. I think Haye is just being diplomatic, afraid to hurt Cleverly’s feelings by coming right out in the open and stating his pick for Bellew. I guess I don’t blame Haye. If you’re a promoter, the last thing you want to do is burn bridges by saying someone is about to get whipped to smithereens.



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