fonfara1 By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (29-2, 15 KOs) has a risky fight ahead of him in just one week on October 16th when he takes on #2 WBA, #3 WBC Andrzej Fonfara (27-3, 16 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois.

Cleverly could have been fighting for a world title right now against WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer instead of having to go through the big punching 27-year-old Fonfara, but Cleverly decided he wanted to test himself against a really tough opponent before he fought for a world title.

Cleverly figures that he’ll still be able to fight for a world title if/when he defeats the 6’2 ½” Fonfara. It makes sense in some ways for Cleverly to get the Fonfara fight out of the way now because even if Cleverly were to defeat Brahmer, who is seen by many boxing fans as the weak link among the 175lb champions, Cleverly would still need to face Fonfara in the near future anyway.

If Cleverly isn’t good enough to beat Fonfara now, then he’d not hold onto his WBA title for more than a couple of fights.

.@NathanClev flies to Chicago today to put the finishing touches to training camp. #CleverlyFofara is so close! ✈️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/tHvWp77OCL

— Team Clev Official (@TeamClev) October 7, 2015

“Initially, I was all set on the Braehmer fight but I thought long and hard about the Fonfara option for a few days and I drifted towards that,” Cleverly said to the
southwalesargus.co.uk. “He’s more of a dangerous opponent and he hasn’t got the world title but it’s in the big market in America. Thought if I can overcome Fonfara in this tough fight then I’m in the big league then.”

Fonfara is a good fighter, but I think there are better guys out there than him in the 175lb division. I wouldn’t consider Cleverly in the “big league” if he beats Fonfara. There would still be Adonis Stevenson, Sergey Kovalev, Sullivan Barrera, Artur Beterbiev, Yunieski Gonzalez and Jean Pascal. I don’t know that Cleverly could beat any of those guys. The same for Tony Bellew, who I suspect will be moving back down to 175 after he finally faces someone good at cruiserweight at gets beaten to shreds. Bellew won’t stay at cruiserweight once he suffers a good beat down, which should be pretty soon because he’s long overdue for him to finally face a good opponent instead of the scrubs that Eddie Hearn has been matching him against.

Kovalev already destroyed Cleverly in 2013 in beating him by a 4th round knockout. Nothing has changed since then other than Cleverly burning up some career time at cruiserweight in a fruitless effort to make something happen in that weight class. I predicted that Cleverly’s exploits up there would end in failure and I was right of course. Sometimes I hate being so right all the time. But I don’t see Cleverly finding any success against Fonfara on October 16th. I see Fonfara as being way too strong for him, and it’s going to be a real slaughter. I just hope Cleverly does the wise thing and takes a knee to get out of the beating if it gets too bad for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7zuGdT-rJQ

The only real question I have for the Cleverly-Fonfara fight is whether Cleverly will retire after he gets knocked out. I could totally understand him if he does because if he can’t beat Fonfara then there’s really no place for him to go in this division other than being one of the gate keepers.

“It’s challenging, I’ve got something to lose but at the same time there’s a lot to gain,” Cleverly said. “Beat Fonfara and will be in line for world title shot anyway.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOGxeLeSqAc

I think Braehmer is a better fighter than Fonfara, and I can’t see Cleverly beating him either. Cleverly is kind of in a situation where he’s fighting in a division that has gotten a whole lot better since he held the WBO 175lb title from 2011 to 2013.