By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) is in need of an opponent for his U.S debut on November 10th on Showtime at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. Cleverly, 25, was supposed to have been fighting #7 WBO, but that fight is now history with rumors of poor ticket sales in the UK.

By sticking Cleverly on the undercard of the Abner Mares vs. Anselmo Moreno & Alfredo Angulo vs. Raul Casarez, it guarantees that there will be a fairly big audience. I just don’t know how many people will really care about Cleverly’s fight because he’s a complete unknown in the U.S outside of the hardcore boxing fans.

Frank Warren, the promoter for Cleverly, is going to have to find someone worthwhile to put in with him. It’s good that Cleverly is in the U.S, because that makes it a lot easier to find a well known fighter that can take the fight because it’s got to be like pulling teeth to get the good U.S fighters to come to the UK to fight because of the hassle and worry about possibly getting jobbed.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Cleverly face some nice quality WBO contenders like Cornelius White, Bernard Hopkins or Isaac Chilemba. Hopkins obviously isn’t going to take a fight with Cleverly with a month notice, and he’s not going to fight on an undercard, so that’s bout. Chilemba, 25, just finished fighting last month and looked good in beating Rayco Saunders by a lopsided eight round unanimous decision.

Chilemba didn’t take a of damage in that fight and I can imagine that he might like the idea of fighting for a world title against Cleverly. However, he might too dangerous because he can actually fight and would be a big step up from the guys that Cleverly has been facing since he was given the WBO strap by the World Boxing Organization last year.

Cornelius White, 30, could be a available. He easily defeated Cleverly’s #1 WBO contender last July in beating Dmitry Sukhotsky by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. White, too, is another fighter that would be very dangerous for Cleverly because he’s a step up from Bellew in my view and with the fight taking place in the U.S instead of the UK, I can see Cleverly losing to White.