(Referee Terry O’Connor showing fine form in half carrying Nathan Cleverly back to his corner following a knockdown) By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly’s debut at cruiserweight will be a little delayed as Cleverly suffered a back injury in training that has wiped out his scheduled fight this Saturday night against Daniel Ammann on the Dereck Chisora vs. Ondrej Pala card at the Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick, London, United Kingdom. Cleverly, 26, wants to start his career with fresh start after he was blasted apart by the unbeaten Russian puncher Sergey Kovalev last August in Wales.
Cleverly was beaten badly by Kovalev when Cleverly made the mistake of trying to punch with him rather than using his boxing skills. Rather than stay at light heavyweight and work his way back to title shot, Cleverly abandoned the division and moved up to cruiserweight where he thinks he’ll find the same kind of success he had at 175.
Cleverly said “I just want to get this year out of the way and enter 2014 with a clean slate and get my career back on track.”
Frankly, I think Cleverly’s making a huge mistake in moving up to the cruiserweight division. The fighters hit harder in that division, and their a lot bigger than the guys that Cleverly’s been facing. If Cleverly can’t hang with the big punchers at 175, then how on earth is he going to be able to compete with the best punchers at cruiserweight.
To be sure, Kovalev can punch good for a light heavyweight, but there are guys that can punch with the same kind of power at cruiserweight like Denis Lebedev, Marco Huck, Ola Afolabi, Rakhim Chakhkiev, and Krzystof Wlodarczyk. Those guys are bigger versions of Kovalev and Cleverly will have backside handed to him if and when he faces one or more of those fighters.
I see Cleverly’s experiment at cruiserweight being a short lived one. He’ll do well against the fodder that he faces, but once he steps it up to face one of those aforementioned punchers I listed, it’ll be all over for Cleverly. I then see him moving back down to light heavyweight to start trying to rebuild himself at that weight class. In other words, Cleverly will be doing later what he should be doing now and that’s work himself back into a title position at 175.
If Cleverly is smart, he’ll take on one of the top cruiserweights sooner rather than later. That way he’ll find out whether he can cut it in this weight class, and after he gets beaten he can quickly move back down to light heavyweight. If Cleverly strings out for a couple of years before he finally faces a cruiserweight with a pulse, then he’ll have nothing to show for that lost time when he does eventually get knocked out in this weight class. That’s why it’ll be so much better for him to get it over with as soon as possible. If Cleverly doesn’t want to move back in weight at that point then I guess he can retire from the sport unless he’s okay with being just a contender at cruiserweight.
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