Cleverly: I can’t wait for Fonfara fight

By Boxing News - 10/14/2015 - Comments

1-IMG_5526By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (29-2, 15 KOs) says he can’t wait to get inside the ring to face the highly ranked Andrzej Fonfara (27-3, 16 KOs) in their fight this Friday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois.

This is the real proving ground for the #10 WBC Cleverly, because he’s lost 2 out of his last 4 fights, and he hasn’t beaten a decent contender in the 175lb division since his win over Tony Bellew four years ago. All of Cleverly’s wins since then have come against these fighters: Tommy Karpency, Robin Krasniqi, Shawn Hawk, Shawn Corbin, Alejandro Emilio Valori and Tomas Man.

It’s hard to believe that those are the best fighters that Cleverly has faced over a 4 year period because those aren’t major players at 175 or cruiserweight.

On paper this is a good fight to watch because it will certainly be interesting to see if Fonfara will be able to put an official wrap on Cleverly’s sagging career, but I don’t think it’s going to be a good fight competitive-wise.

I think Fonfara is going to beat Cleverly like a drum on Friday night, and beat him worse than he did Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last April. If you remember that fight, you’ll know that Chavez Jr. quit on his stool after the 9th round.

Chavez Jr. got dropped and then quit in between rounds due to the terrible pounding he was taking. I’d hate to see Cleverly quit on his stool too. There’s something that can be said about a fighter who is willing to go out on his shield rather than quitting when the going gets tough.

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“The fight fans are in for a great show on Friday night and I cannot wait,” Cleverly said. “This is going to be a great fight. We’re right on the fringe behind Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev. We both come to fight, we let our punches go and fight on the front foot. It’s going to be difficult, he’s a good fighter and we’re in his hometown.”

Cleverly is pretty much in a bad way for this fight because he just doesn’t have the punching power to do anything against Fonfara. You saw the way that Sergey Kovalev blasted Cleverly out in 4 rounds two years ago in 2013, and I think we’re going to see the same thing on Friday night. Unless Cleverly finds some power somewhere for this fight, I see him getting smashed to smithereens.



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