By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Clevery is like a dog that can’t let go of a bone. He’s totally convinced he’s going to get a fight against 47-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins this summer, possibly forgetting that Hopkins has a fight on April 28th against Chad Dawson and he’s probably going to lose that fight and lose badly. Cleverly faces #4 WBO contender Robin Krasniqi on the same night but in London, UK.

Cleverly wants to look good against Krasniqi to prove himself worthy somehow for a fight against Hopkins. Cleverly bypassed his mandatory challenger Dmitry Sukhotskiy, who can really punch, to face the light hitting Krasniqi. Now Cleverly wants to look good against Krasniqi, as if it’ll make a difference. Krasniqi appears to be a step down from Cleverly’s last opponent Tommy Karpency, a fringe contender that Cleverly beat in February. Krasniqi may be ranked higher than Karpency, but that was only by the WBO. None of the other sanctioning bodies have Krasniqi ranked in the top 15, and it’s pretty easy to see why. He can’t punch and he’s faced nothing but 2nd and 3rd tier opposition his entire career, and now he’s been picked out for Cleverly. I’d say the chances are 100% Cleverly will win. As far as whether he’ll look impressive or not, that’ll be open to interpretation. Cleverly is one of those high volume punchers that is easy to hit but who wins because he out-lands his opposition. He’s done well against the limited opposition he’s faced since he was given the WBO title by the World Boxing Organization out of the ring.

Cleverly told thesun.co.uk “I’ve got to be at my best against Krasniqi. I’ve got to win in style to prove I’m ready to challenge Hopkins.”

What about Chad Dawson? What is Cleverly going to do when/if Dawson beats Hopkins? Is he still going to fight Hopkins and look like he’s dodging Dawson? The smart way to look at this is to say, ‘I want to look good so I can prove myself worthy of a fight against Dawson.’ Hopkins looked absolutely horrible against Dawson last October and unless Cleverly is into fighting the loser of that fight, which will almost surely be Hopkins, then he needs to start saying he wants to prove himself worthy of a fighting Dawson. He’s going to beat Hopkins. Of course, it’s rather telling that Dawson’s name isn’t being mentioned by Cleverly. That suggests that he won’t even try to fight Dawson if he beats Hopkins. I hope I’m wrong about this but that’s how I read it.