Nathan Cleverly wants Braehmer fight in September

By Boxing News - 03/22/2015 - Comments

cleverly567By Scott Gilfoid: After watching WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (46-2, 34 KOs) obliterate an over-matched and very, very limited Robin Krasniqi (43-4, 16 KOs) last Saturday night at the Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, former WBO 175lb champion Nathan Cleverly (28-2, 14 KOs) says he wants to fight the 36-year-old Braehmer in September if he can get a fight against the Sauerland promoted German fighter.

Cleverly’s promoter Eddie Hearn would have to make the fight, and it remains to be seen whether he can do that.

I’m not sure that you can make an argument that the 28-year-old Cleverly deserves a title shot against Braehmer, as Cleverly is coming off of a loss to Tony Bellew in his last fight in November, he’s not ranked in the top 15 at 175, he’s not fought in the light heavyweight division in 2 years, and he’s lost 2 out of his last 4 fights.

If those are the qualifications for getting a title shot at 175, then that’s pretty sad. It is unclear why Cleverly is in such a hurry to get a title shot, given that he’s still not faced anyone at that weight in two years.

“I’m told the fight can really happen,” Cleverly said via Sky Sports while working the Braehmer-Krasniqi fight as an analyst. “I believe this fight is on the cards, so I’ve got one fight lined up (against a TBA on April 25th) and if I get through that I think it’s likely that myself and Braehmer are going to get it on.”

Hearn and Sauerland Events have worked together to put fights together in the past, so I won’t be surprised if Cleverly can get the fight with Braehmer. It would be kind of troubling that Cleverly would be able to move around the top 15 contenders in the division to get a title shot. I mean, you’ve got guys that are ranked in the top 15 in the division like Artur Beterbiev, Bernard Hopkins, and Jean Pascal that Cleverly would be moving past to get the title shot.

You could kind of ignore that if Cleverly was unbeaten in his last two years of his career, but the fact of the matter is he’s not. He’s lost two out of his last four fights, and he’s coming off of a loss to Bellew. As such, it’s hard to justify that Cleverly deserves to get a title shot against Braehmer based on what he’s done lately in his career.

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The only way you can say Cleverly should get a title fight is based on him being an ex-champion at 175, and him being well-known among hardcore boxing fans. Other than that, he’s not earned the title shot against Braehmer on merits. Anything is possible when it’s a voluntary defense, so I won’t be surprised if Cleverly gets the title shot.

“Let’s see what the promoters can sort out now; Sauerland and Eddie Hearn can get together and really confirm this fight,” Cleverly said. “But I know it’s been put in place, the seed has been planted and I’m ready, hopefully Braehmer’s ready. That’s the big question, will Juergen Braehmer really take me on? Let’s hope so and I can rip that world title from him.”

I don’t think Cleverly will do well against Braehmer. It’s a bad match-up for Cleverly, because Braehmer can punch, and he’s a southpaw. I can see Cleverly taking a beating like he did in his 4th round knockout loss to Sergey Kovalev in 2013.

For Cleverly to have a chance of beating Braehmer, he will need to be able to fight like he used to before his knockout loss to Kovalev. Cleverly is too passive now and gun-shy for him to have a chance of beating Braehmer.

Cleverly and Braehmer were supposed to fight each other in 2011, but Braehmer couldn’t take the fight due to an injury that led to the World Boxing Organization stripping Braehmer of his 175 pound title.



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