By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 11 KO’s) is now out of the picture for a fight against either WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins or Chad Dawson due to the controversy that surrounds the Dawson-Hopkins fight.

Cleverly’s promoter was hoping to match Cleverly against the winner of the Dawson vs. Hopkins fight, but that’s probably not even remotely realistic after Hopkins was injured in the 2nd round of the Dawson fight. Dawson already says he wants to fight a rematch with Jean Pascal, a fighter that beat him last year. And Hopkins is going to need time to heal up his injured left shoulder which was dislocated.

Hopkins is already talking about wanting a rematch with Dawson, and that is a much higher priority for the 46-year-old Hopkins than facing a little known fighter like Cleverly. Other than hardcore boxing fans, no one really knows who Cleverly is in the U.S and there’s no real rush to fight him at this time.

The best thing Cleverly can do is go straight into a rematch with Tony Bellew, who Cleverly defeated by a controversial 12 round decision on October 15th, and try to beat him this time without controversy. I had the Bellew-Cleverly fight a draw but if I was to lean in either of the fighter’s directions I would go with Bellew. He landed the much harder and cleaner shots during the fight. Cleverly threw more and landed more, but without the power that Bellew had.

Dawson and Hopkins have so many better options available to them besides facing an obscure fighter like Cleverly. We’re talking Lucian Bute, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Kelly Pavlik, Anthony Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler, Robert Stieglitz, Arthur Abraham, Jermain Taylor, Jean Pascal,, Beibut Shumenov, Tavoris Cloud, Zsolt Erdei..Etc. It’s practically endless. I rank Cleverly well below of those guys in terms of talent and popularity. Those are the guys that are likely going to be the upcoming fights for Dawson and Hopkins besides facing each other. Cleverly needs to carve his own niche and make a name for himself by finally stepping it. Right now, he’s still facing European and domestic level opposition. He needs to step it up a couple of levels so at least boxing fans can see if he’s for real or not. Bases on his life and death struggle with Bellew, I don’t think Cleverly is for real.