(Tony Bellew seen here showing the wear and tear from his much harder than expected fight against 37-year-old Valery Brudov) By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO’s) says he’s definitely made up his mind that he’ll be moving up to the cruiserweight division to campaign at that weight. Cleverly, 27, has been mulling over the decision of whether to move up in weight or not since he was stopped in the 4th round by Sergey Kovalev last summer.
One of the eventual targets that Cleverly intends on fighting is Tony Bellew (21-2-1, 13 KO’s). Cleverly wants to shut Bellew’s yap by beating him a second time and proving his previous victory over him from 2011 was no fluke.
Cleverly said this on his twitter to Bellew: “Tony Bellew do you genuinely believe you won the first fight??? You silly, stupid, deluded man ….concentrate on your own career kid. I will be back. U can have another crack at me. Show more respect next time I beat u big man. I may even give that mouthpiece ANOTHER spanking.”
Bellew called out Cleverly last Saturday night after his 12th round knockout win over Valery Brudov. Bellew said “He [Cleverly] don’t want to fight me, it’s as simple as that. If you want to fight, you know where I am.”
Cleverly looks like he’s going to take things slowly in restarting his career, so I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing a fight between him and Bellew anytime soon, if ever.
Cleverly did say this on Sky Ringside this week “I’m going to destroy that guy when it happens again. I think Tony’s only chance to beat me was in that fight in Liverpool. That was his best chance of beating me.”
Well, if Cleverly waits too long before facing Bellew again, it might be too late, because as bad as Bellew looked in going life and death with a mediocre Brudov, I can see him getting beaten very soon unless his promoter Eddie Hearn dodges all the good contenders in the cruiserweight division.
Brudov wasn’t even a contender in the top 15 at cruiserweight, and you saw how badly Bellew had to struggle to beat that guy. Let’s be honest here; if Bellew is put in with a good top 15 contender at cruiserweight, he’s going to lose and lose badly. I think the same applies with Cleverly. I think both of these guys are domestic level fighters who won’t be able to do much at cruiserweight other than beat the bottom feeders of the division.
I think someone needs to sit Cleverly down and make him realize that the time to fight Bellew is right now rather than later. If Cleverly waits too long, the interest won’t be there from fans once both of them start taking loses at cruiserweight. I don’t see fans being interested in a Cleverly-Bellew fight after they get exposed at cruiserweight as not having the talent to compete at this weight. That’s why Cleverly and Bellew need to fight right now rather than waiting.
I was kind of surprised to see how fat Cleverly looks now. He looks like someone else entirely now. It’s going to be hell for him to burn off that blubber and try to fight at cruiserweight.
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