By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Enzo Calzaghe, the father of former super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, thinks that former WBO 175lb champion Nathan Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO’s) should have stuck it out at light heavyweight instead of moving up to the cruiserweight division following his 4th round TKO loss to slugger Sergey Kovalev last Summer.
Cleverly was mowed down by Kovalev, and instead of regrouping and aiming at a softer 175lb champion like Beibut Shumenov or the nearly 50-year-old Bernard Hopkins, Cleverly bailed on the division and moved up to cruiserweight. Calzaghe rightfully sees this as mistake on Cleverly’s part, and he has doubts that he’ll find success at this weight due to his lack of punching power.
“If he was with me and asked me if he should turn cruiserweight I would have probably said no,” Enzo said to the BBC Sport. “How many people has he knocked out as a light heavyweight – two? He probably hasn’t got the killer punch. I don’t know why he didn’t give himself another chance at light heavyweight to fulfill his potential, because he can get back to that higher level.”
I agree with Calzaghe 100 percent. What the heck if a feather-fisted fighter like Cleverly going to do at cruiserweight other than get knocked out and take punishment? I see Cleverly’s move up to the cruiserweight division as a bone-headed move destined for failure. I just wonder why someone hasn’t talked any sense into Cleverly’s head to dissuade him from making the move to the cruiserweight division. He’s like someone steering his car over a cliff, and he doesn’t seem to realize it.
Cleverly may not have been a good champion at 175, but he at least was good enough to hold down the WBO title for a little while, albeit in facing weak opposition. But in moving up in weight to the cruiserweight division, Cleverly is going to be facing opponents left and right with power similar to Kovalev. All the top caliber opposition in the cruiserweight division has power similar to Kovalev, which is probably why Kovalev is fighting at light heavyweight. If he moves up in weight, he loses the advantage he has at 175. But Cleverly wasn’t even a puncher in the light heavyweight division.
In predicting the future, I see Cleverly beating some scrub they find for him to fight on May 17th, and then maybe his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport will match him up with a money fight against Tony Bellew. But as soon as Hearn takes the training wheels off of Cleverly and throws him in the deep end of the cruiserweight pool against the real sharks and not the minnows, Cleverly is very likely to get his backside handed to him on a silver platter. I hate to say it, but I see Cleverly getting knocked out left and right. He didn’t seem to react well to his knockout loss to Kovalev, which tells me that he’ll probably shoot himself in the foot again by retiring once he gets spanked for the second time.
Cleverly should just stay at light heavyweight and go after beatable guys while he waits for Hopkins to retire or get obliterated by Adonis Stevenson. By working his way into a mandatory spot, Cleverly can get a fight against the 36-year-old Stevenson and get a nice payday bout. At some point, Stevenson will retire because he’s getting up there in age, and Cleverly is young enough to still be around at 175 when both Stevenson and Kovalev hang up the gloves.
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