Cleverly still wants Hopkins or Dawson next but will settle for Cloud or Shumenov
October 19th, 2011
By Scott Gilfoid: If you saw WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly’s close 12 round majority decision win over challenger Tony Bellew (16-1, 10 KO’s) last Saturday night you would think the last thing that Cleverly needs to be doing is trying to move forward to fight WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson or 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins. But that’s exactly what the 24-year-old Cleverly wants to do.
Instead of looking to fight Dawson or Hopkins, and get dominated, Cleverly needs to give Bellew a rematch but with a whole different crew of judges apart from the one that scored it 114-114. I think Cleverly needs to show that he’s better than Bellew before he can move on to bigger and better things like Dawson or Hopkins. And right now Cleverly and Bellew are about equal. That’s just the reality of it. Cleverly can move on if he wants to but he looks bad because he didn’t show that he was better than Bellew.
Hopkins and Dawson aren’t going to waste time fighting Cleverly. That’s not going to happen. Dawson wants to fight a rematch against Jean Pascal, while Hopkins is injured from a bad shoulder injury. Who knows how long it will take for that injury to heal, but I don’t think he’ll want to fight a less than popular guy like Cleverly in his next fight in the U.S. Hopkins won’t travel to England, that’s the only place that a Cleverly vs. Hopkins fight has any significance. U.S fans won’t buy that fight, especially after the PPV fiasco of the Hopkins-Dawson fight.
Cleverly said this to ringtv: “I think Shumenov would be good next step for me. He’s only had about 13 fights and is WBA champion. Or there’s Tavoris Cloud, the IBF champion, who is a good fighter. There’d both be unification fights. If a fight with Hopkins or Dawson came along I would take it. Whether or not I’m ready, I don’t know.”
You’re not ready, Cleverly; take it from me. I think Cloud would knock Cleverly out with his high work rate and the same with Shumenov. With his poor defense, Cleverly would be a sitting duck against Cloud and Shumenov.
I hate to say it but Cleverly pretty much found his upper level in the Bellew fight and he’s reached his ceiling.
Tags: 10 Responses to “Cleverly still wants Hopkins or Dawson next but will settle for Cloud or Shumenov”
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totaly agree, just about everybody thought this was going to be a walk in park for cleverly, i had a draw bellew has improved so much he was awsome and in the early rounds just about won every1, the only reason cleverly won is that he was fitter than bellew and thats it, he had more energy left in the last couple of rounds, cleverly has no defence, dosnt hit that hard to be honest, and gets hit A LOT. pascal would ko cleverly in 1st round as would dawson,hopkins would school him and make him look stupid for 12 rounds, i think a rematch is a must
He has too have a rematch with bellew next ,,the whole boxing world nos he never won the fight,he should of said after the fight.he doesn’t want too no he’ll take the shumonov route the easy route .as for belllew he looked like he’d been beat the way he acted at the end ,,,head down both arms by his side,,I had it a draw but bellew lost it him self after the final bell it’s called inexperience
nothing wrong with being ambitious scott – I think he would do well against anyone in the division…and is only 24. Did think it was an even fight though. A rematch a year or 2 down the line would be interesting
I agree with Scott for once cleverly’s win against Bellew was not convincing a rematch is definitely needed
lloyd why wud he fight pascal! wat has pascal got that cleverley wud want? cloud, shuminov, dawson (or hopkins) all have belts!
CLerverly Is afraid Of Pascal, Why not fight Pascal an easy Target ???
He wants to fight the best
He wants to risk his record
He wants to excite the fans
Sounds good to me!
What’s your problem with that?
erm isnt that a good thing that he is calling out the best scott!! even he loses at least he has got balls and wnts the big fights! and then u have brendan rios who is fighting john murray!! speaks volumes
Bellew who was goin to smash cleverly to peices bellew the with the most power in there division cleverly beat him and took his best punches scott just give up you crettin
So young fighters can’t improve?, or have an off night?… If cleverly didn’t want these fights you’d be on here slating him for it.
I wouldn’t pi55 on you if you were dying of thirst.