Calzaghe: Cleverly could be catapulted to the top if he beats Kovalev

By Boxing News - 08/16/2013 - Comments

cleverlyKovalev_HeaderBy Scott Gilfoid: Former super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe thinks all it’ll take for fellow Welsh fighter WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12 KO’s) to get to the top is for him to beat Sergey Kovalev (21-0-1, 19 KO’s) this Saturday night in their fight on HBO at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.

For some reason, Calzaghe thinks a victory over Kovalev will be big enough to get Cleverly to the top of the food chain at 175.

Calzaghe said to the BBC Sport “They’re saying that Kovalev is the next big thing. This is a golden opportunity for Nathan. Winning this fight and winning it in good style would catapult him [Cleverly] among the top light heavies in the world, up there with [Bernard] Hopkins.”

This fight could also send Cleverly’s career skittering downward if he gets knocked out by Kovalev. It’s two-edged sword. Calzaghe is seeing only the positive without entertaining the disaster that could happen in this fight for Cleverly. After all, this isn’t one of Cleverly’s past opponents like Tommy Karpency, Tony Bellew, Robin Krasniqi, Shawn Hawk and Aleksy Kuziemski.

Kovalev is a lot better than those guys, and he’s a lot more dangerous as well. Heck, Cleverly almost lost to Bellew. That fight was pretty much a draw. That was Cleverly going life and death with Bellew. So if Cleverly can’t even beat a fighter like Bellew in a convincing fashion, then what is Calzaghe doing dreaming of a future where Cleverly has beaten Kovalev.

Calzaghe should instead be seeing a good fallback position for Cleverly, and thinking of what opponents he can take on to try and build himself back up.
What I don’t like about this fight is that Cleverly leads with his chin. He just plods forwards and dares his opponents to smash him in the grill.

He’s been able to get away with this because he’s not faced anyone that you can remotely call a good fighter at 175. But on Saturday night, if Cleverly leads with his chin, he’s going to get smashed by Kovalev.

I don’t know that Cleverly has the ability to fight in any other style but his usual plodding style of fighting. He is what he is, right? You can’t change a plodder overnight, so I’m expecting Cleverly to try and beat Kovalev in a toe-to-toe battle in this fight, and I don’t think this is going to work out well for Cleverly.

I know some of Cleverly’s fans see him as having a fighting style similar to Calzaghe, but I can’t see anything at all that reminds of Calzaghe when I see Cleverly fight. They are so different that it’s not even funny. Even Calzaghe would have major problems against a fighter with the kind of power that Kovalev has. That’s how bad things are for Cleverly.

Kovalev is going to be trying to take his head off with his power shots in this fight, and I think Cleverly is going to make it easy for him by sticking his chin out for Kovalev to smash it.



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