Cleverly moving down to 175, fighting on April 11th in Leeds

By Boxing News - 01/07/2015 - Comments

cleverly3By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight belt holder Nathan Cleverly (28-2, 14 KOs) will be moving back down to the 175 pound division to pursue a title shot against WBA World light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer in the near future.

Cleverly attempted to give it a go in the cruiserweight division despite lacking the power to fight in that weight class. He fought exactly three times at cruiserweight, and was beaten recently by Tony Bellew by a 12 round split decision last November in their second fight together.

Cleverly looked like he was afraid to engage with Bellew for some reason, perhaps in order to protect his chin which had been compromised in a knockout loss to Sergey Kovalev in 2013. Bellew looked terrible as well, but he’s fighting on at cruiserweight and looking for a title shot against one of the champions.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bellew moving back down to light heavyweight as well when/if he gets beaten badly by one of the champions at cruiserweight. Both Bellew and Cleverly lacked the size for a cruiserweight that you see from the top fighters in that class. Bellew weighs as much as the cruiserweight, but his frame is flabby with visible fat around his waist.

Braehmer is seen as the weakest of the light heavyweight champions by many boxing fans so a fight between Cleverly and Braehmer kind of makes sense. The WBA has two title holders with Sergey Kovalev being the WBA Super World light heavyweight champion.

If Cleverly can’t beat Braehmer then you pretty much got to figure that he’ll need to be content with just being a contender/gate keeper type of fighter at 175. I mean, Cleverly is young enough to wait out the 36-year-old Braehmer until he retires if he can’t beat the guy, but the hard hitting sensation Artur Beterbiev is quickly moving up the rankings and that would be someone that Cleverly will have to soon contend with if he wants to hold down the WBA strap. I don’t like Cleverly’s chances against a slugger like Beterbiev.

Cleverly, 27, will be fighting on April 11th against an opponent still to be determined at the First Direct Arena, Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Cleverly needs a name guy for him to get back in the swing of things at 175. I doubt it’ll be anyone with power because Cleverly has looked gun shy since his loss to Kovalev.

It could be difficult for Cleverly to make the 175 pound division. He was bellyaching about being weak from making the weight after his last fight at light heavyweight in 2013, and I don’t expect it to be easier for him to get down to the weight after he put a ton of weight on to fight at cruiserweight. I wouldn’t be surprised if draining down to 175 weakens Cleverly to the point where he’s not even as good as he was on the night he was blasted out by Kovalev in four rounds.



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