Nathan Cleverly fights Sean Corbin in cruiserweight debut on 5/17

By Boxing News - 04/29/2014 - Comments

cleverly677By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO’s) will be returning to the ring in the next two and half weeks to fight 39-year-old Sean Cordin (17-4, 12 KO’s) in his cruiserweight debut at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. While the fight is technically at cruiserweight, Corbin has been a light heavyweight for pretty much his entire career up until recently, so this is kind of a continuation of Cleverly’s career at 175, because Corbin is not a natural cruiserweight.

He’s more of a pumped up light heavyweight, and this isn’t going to prepare Cleverly much for the kinds of heavy shots he’s going to be taking when he faces a real cruiserweight with power on the same lines as Sergey Kovalev.

Corbin was blasted out by Mateusz Masternak in 9 rounds last year in April in his only fight against a semi-decent cruiserweight. Corbin did beat a past his prime Wayne Braithwaite two years ago shortly after moving up in weight to the cruiserweight division.

While fighting at light heavyweight, Corbin was knocked out by the following fighters: Dawid Kostecki, Karo Murat and Tito Mendoza. Murat knocked him out rather easily in just 2 rounds. Cleverly stopped Murat in 10 rounds four years ago in a one-sided fight in 2010. It’s interesting that Cleverly is fighting a guy that Murat easily beat. It seems like Cleverly might as well just fight Murat again rather than fight the guy he easily beat, because it’s not as if Cleverly will be fighting a legitimate cruiserweight in Corbin.

By the time Cleverly enters the ring next month to fight Corbin, it’ll have been 9 months since he was wiped out by Sergey Kovalev in 4 rounds last August. Cleverly decided to bail on the light heavyweight division after that fight, as he felt that he was being weakened in having to get down to 175. However, unless Cleverly can develop any power in moving up to the cruiserweight division, he’s going to be forced to routinely take heavy shots by guys just as powerful as Kovalev.

If Cleverly doesn’t have the power to knock anyone out in this division, then he’s going to be forced to go the distance to win his fights by decision in this weight class. That’s fine but I don’t think it’s promising for him given that he’ll be getting by much stronger punchers than the mostly light hitters that Cleverly was matched up with during his time in the light heavyweight division. In other words, Cleverly’s idea of making it big in the cruiserweight division would seem to be doomed for failure right from the start.

Cleverly will probably knock Corbin out, but that’s not saying much because the guy has already been knocked out 4 times in the past, even by Murat.

Cleverly’s promoter Eddie Hearn is excited about Cleverly’s move to the cruiserweight division, saying “I can’t wait to see Nathan back in action at Cruiserweight. Corbin has only been beaten when he has stepped up to top level and will come into the fight with plenty of size and ambition.”

Corbin moved up to the cruiserweight division at age 37. To me, Corbin is not a cruiserweight. There’s a difference in someone moving up to another division late in their career and someone who has always been fighting at that weight. This fight might be at cruiserweight, but this is definitely not a cruierweight Cleverly is facing, and it’s a pity that he’s probably going to get excited after he beats this guy and think he just beat a cruiserweight.



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