Fonfara not overlooking Cleverly

By Boxing News - 09/17/2015 - Comments

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs Andrzej FonfaraBy Scott Gilfoid: WBC International light heavyweight champion Andrzej Fonfara (27-3, 16 KOs) isn’t overlooking his title defense against #12 WBC Nathan Cleverly (29-2, 15 KOs) in their fight next month on October 16th on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois.

Fonfara, 27, sees the 28-year-old former WBO light heavyweight champion Cleverly as a better fighter than former WBC 160lb champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who Fonfara stopped in the 10th round last April in a fight in which Chavez Jr. quit on his stool after the 9th round after getting dropped in that round.

Cleverly needs a win over Fonfara in order to get a title shot against WBA “regular” light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer. Cleverly didn’t have to take the fight in order to get the fight against Braehmer. He would have gotten it anyway, but he wanted the fight against Fonfara, #2 WBA, #2 WBC, #5 WBO, #6 IBF, to test himself.

It sort of makes sense for Cleverly to take the fight against Fonfara, because if he can’t beat him then his chances of holding onto the WBA title for any length of time are about zero, because Andrzej Fonfara and Artur Beterbiev are the two top ranked fighters in the division in the World Boxing Association’s top 15 rankings.

If Cleverly was able to beat Braehmer, he’d eventually have to tangle with Fonfara and Beterbiev, and he’d then wind up likely getting knocked out by both of them.

“I believe that Nathan Cleverly is a better fighter than Chavez Jr. – more experience, better amateur background, defended his WBO title five times,” Fonfara said. “It was hard NOT to hit Chavez Jr. sometimes. Cleverly is an all-around better fighter with fast hands and good ring movement. I expect him to be best Nathan Cleverly ever.”

I don’t agree that Cleverly is a better fighter than Chavez Jr. I think Cleverly was a paper champion when he held the WBO 175lb title from 2011 to 2013. During Cleverly’s two-year reign as the WBO champion, he fought only weak opposition in Aleksy Kuziemski, Tony Bellew, Tommy Karpency, Shawn Hawk and Robin Krasniqi until losing his WBO title to Sergey Kovalev in the first and only fight against a good opponent.

I rate Chavez Jr. as a much better puncher than Cleverly, and a better overall fighter. Yeah, Chavez Jr. looked bad against Fonfara, because he’s not a light heavyweight and he wasn’t well-trained for the fight.

I see this fight going badly for Cleverly. Fonfara hits too hard, and will be on top of Cleverly for the entire fight pounding him with punches. Unless Cleverly’s chin has gotten better since his loss to Kovalev, I see him getting obliterated within six rounds by Fonfara on October 16th.

Cleverly fought in a timid manner in his recent loss to Bellew last November. Cleverly rebounded from that loss to defeat a badly over-matched Tomas Man by a 1st round knockout last May in a fight that was pretty much useless in helping Cleverly improve. Cleverly isn’t any different than he was when he lost to Kovalev. I actually think Cleverly isn’t as good as he was back in 2013 in my view.



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