By William Mackay: Next week, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (22-0, 11 KO’s) will be making his second defense of his World Boxing Organization title against #13 ranked challenger Tony Bellew (16-0, 10 Ko’s) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.

On paper, this might appear to be a decent scrap between a young champion against one of his lower ranked contenders. It wouldn’t be a bad fight for an optional title defense following a really difficult defense against someone talented like Zolt Erdei or Chad Dawson. But that’s not who this is.

Bellew isn’t in the same class as those fighters and this doesn’t figure to be a competitive match-up. It’s merely a title defense between two fighters known in the UK, but largely unknown to the rest of the world. What Cleverly really needs if he wants to establish himself as more than just a fighter known locally is to take on popular fighters elsewhere around the world. Erdei is very well known and respected in Germany, and that’s who Cleverly should have been trying to fight instead of Bellew, who has record built mainly on B level fighters.

Bellew will probably come out swinging and get taken out in a few rounds. If he boxes, he may last but I doubt it. Cleverly will force him to fight and will wear him down and put him down before the the halfway point in the fight.

Cleverly’s promoter wants to get him in with the winner of the Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson fight on October 15th. That would be an excellent start for Cleverly in making a star out of him. Even if he does lose, he’ll probably give a good showing and do well enough to win some fans in the U.S or at the very least, get his name out there so that fans recognize who he is the next time he fights in America. But he needs to stop wasting his time fighting non-recognizable fighters and start going after the big fights if he wants to make it big.