By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 11 KO’s) is upset that former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) won’t step up a weight class and challenge him for his World Boxing Organization belt after the 24-year-old Cleverly made open challenge to the 34-year-old Froch following his loss to WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward in the Super Six tournament.

Cleverly faces little known American Tommy Karpency (21-2-1, 14 KO’s) next month on February 25th, and not too many people are interested in seeing Cleverly face yet another beatable low ranked opponent. When I say low ranked, I really low ranked.

Karpency isn’t even ranked in the top 15 by the WBO and I’m still trying to figure out how they sanctioned this mismatch. It’s very strange that this fight is being allowed to go forth with Karpency not to be seen in the top 15 ranking by the WBO. He is ranked a generous #10 by the WBA, but that’s not really relevant because he’s nowhere to be seen in the WBO rankings.

Cleverly told Sky Sports News “I just think business-wise, it [a fight against Froch] makes clear sense; It would be a great fight. I know he’d have to step up a weight class, but it would be an opportunity for him to become a two-weight world champion and it’s not going to be an easy fight for him. Why not do it?”

Why not? Because there’s no win in beating a guy that few people know or care about. There’s no win in beating a guy that just went life and death with Tony Bellow. There’s no win in beating a guy that has never fought anyone huge named fighters before.

If Froch whips Cleverly, people will likely say ‘So what? Cleverly has no power, is easy to hit and has never fought anyone.’ But if Froch loses to Cleverly, then his career will be in a tailspin. I don’t think for a second that Froch would ever lose to Cleverly unless Froch suddenly become 100% completely shot. Even then, Froch’s power would still carry him through to victory. We’re talking different levels here.

Cleverly wants to become a popular fighter but he’s going about it in a kind of backwards manner. Instead of going after the top fighters in the top five, Cleverly fought #13 ranked Tony Bellew in his last fight, and barely beat the guy a questionable 12 round majority decision last October I thought Cleverly fought well enough to get a draw but that’s it.

After a fight like that, Cleverly should have fought Bellew again to prove that he can beat a #13 ranked contender, but it doesn’t look like Cleverly is interested in doing that. He’s actually going backwards instead of forward. Cleverly could have faced Enzo Maccarinelli, who see as a much better fighter than Karpency, but he didn’t want that fight either.

So, we’ve got Cleverly facing another little known fighter and complaining about Froch not wanting to fight him. I think Cleverly doesn’t get it. You can’t get the bigger stars to fight you if you’re bottom feeding. The way to get one of them fight you is to pick from the top and only from the top. You’ve got to ignore the low hanging fruit and go only for the top round if he wants people to know his name.