Cleverly wants to take judges out of Bellew rematch

By Boxing News - 11/18/2014 - Comments

cleverly55By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14 KOs) wants to make spectators out of the judges this Saturday night in his rematch against Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14 KOs) on November 22nd at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

Cleverly knows what he’s up against in going to Bellew’s neck of the woods in Liverpool to fight in front of his fans. If Cleverly doesn’t take the judges out of this fight, then the chances are high that we could see Cleverly finding himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision loss.

We saw Bellew get a controversial draw and win over Isaac Chilemba in 2013 in fights that he appeared to lose. It just goes to show you how hard it is to beat Bellew unless you take the judges out of the equation.

“This time I don’t want to leave it to the judges’ scorecards. I want to win it emphatically and really silence this guy once and for all,” Cleverly said via Skysports.com. “Bellew is a big cruiserweight, a big puncher so there’s a question about how I’m going to deal with a big cruiserweight. This is the acid test. I’m ready to answer those questions and I’ve prepared well.”

Bellew is big for a cruiserweight, but he doesn’t have a lot of muscle on his flabby frame. I mean, he moved up from the light heavyweight division, but much of the weight that he put appears to be in the form of fat rather than muscle. The only thing that Cleverly has to deal with in this fight is the extra weight that Bellew is carrying around, because he’s not a better fighter now compared to when he was fighting at 175.

In Bellew’s two fights at cruiserweight, he’s had to struggle to defeat Julio Cesar Dos Santos and Valery Brudov. In both fights, Bellew was hurt by guys that aren’t considered huge punchers. This makes me think that Bellew’s punch resistance may have diminished since his knockout loss to WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson in November of last year.

I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Cleverly were to knock Bellew out in this fight. If Bellew decides to stand in front of Cleverly rather than running like he’s done in some of his fights, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bellew drops for the 10 count.



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