By @BoxingMuse: In the aftermath of Cleverly’s agonising defeat to the unheralded danger man of the light-heavyweight division Sergey Kovalev, there is speculation as to whether the young Welshman will continue his boxing career.
Cleverly’s time as the WBO light heavyweight champion of the world ended last Saturday night via TKO in the fourth round. ‘Krusher’ Kovalev the aggressive and underrated power puncher will probably not get the credit he is due until he scalps another 175lbs titlist, but believe me when I say Kovalev is a very talented boxer.
But the topic of this article is the future of Nathan Cleverly. In modern boxing there is so much emphasis on an unbeaten record, to be the perfect fighter who has never tasted defeat. This reflects the fact that boxing is becoming more of a business than ever. But if we look back to boxing’s prime years as a raw and popular sport which has produced legendary pugilists you will see greatness is not defined by unbeaten records but is defined by competition between the best. Look back to icons of the sport such as Sugar Ray Robinson (173-19), Jake LaMotta (83-19), Henry Armstrong (150-21), Emile Griffith (85-24) and the list goes on.
I am not suggesting Nathan Cleverly can be compared to some of the greatest of all time but I am illustrating how losses do not mean the end of the road for a fighter, quite the opposite. BoxRec recognises former IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Sven Ottke as 34-0 but boxing history will not remember Ottke as a great. There are very few who achieve unbeaten greatness, arguably but in my opinion Nathan’s countryman and former gym mate Joe Calzaghe reached undefeated supremacy.
It is no secret that Cleverly was considered the second coming of Calzaghe having grown up in the Calzaghe era, training in the same gym in south Wales witnessing the working class hero become the cream of the crop of boxing. There were high expectations placed upon Nathan from the boxing public and his own promoter claiming this fight represented Cleverly’s ‘Jeff Lacy moment’, beating a danger man who was to be the next big thing therefor elevating him to superstardom.
Of course a loss such as this unearths critics and doubters among sport’s general public and boxing fans who will vent endless amounts of negative assumptions about Cleverly. Understandably Nathan will be grieving from the loss but should not hang up the gloves. The Caerphilly fighter will learn more from this loss than his twenty six previous victories, if he pursues his professional career.
As the title says ‘Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn’, at 26 years old, time is on the Welshman’s side, Cleverly can take time out to come to terms with this loss and let this be a learning curve, living by the positive philosophy that the L on this record stands for ‘learning’ rather than loss.
I tip the Russian Kovalev to achieve big things in the light-heavyweight division if he is given the chance. There is no doubt the young Welshman has ability and more potential to fulfil and I am hoping Cleverly will comeback from this defeat a better boxer and a wiser man.
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