Nathan Cleverly leading candidate for Andre Ward’s July 30 fight

By Boxing News - 05/27/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: An offer has reportedly been made from light heavyweight Andre Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports to the promoters for former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (29-3, 15 KOs) for a fight on July 30 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.

Cleverly, 29, would be Ward’s tune-up opponent to help get him ready for a title shot against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in November. Roc Nation Sports gave the offer to Cleverly’s promoters at Matchroom Sport, according to Dan Rafael.

Cleverly’s career has really bottomed out lately, and it’s surprising he’s even ranked in the top 15 with the sanctioning bodies. Cleverly was blasted out in four rounds by Kovalev three years ago in 2013.

Cleverly has since been beaten by Tony Bellew and Andrzej Fonfara. Cleverlys only wins in the last three years have come against weak opposition on Tomas Man, Alejandro Emilio Valori and Shawn Corbin.

Besides Cleverly, the other options for Ward is super middleweight Alexander Brand (25-1, 19 KOs) and #5 WBO light heavyweight contender Erik Skoglund (25-0, 11 KOs). Neither of these guys are going to be much of any help to get Ward ready for a fight against Kovalev. About the only thing Ward will get from fighting the likes of Skogland, Cleverly or Brand is a payday. Maybe Ward doesn’t care about the tune-up value of the fight.

If I’m Ward, I would want to fight someone that could get me ready for the Kovalev fight. The guys that are in the running for his next fight aren’t going to get him ready for what he’ll be facing when he gets inside the ring with the hard hitting Kovalev. Ward needs fighters like Eleider Alvarez, Andrzej Fonfara, Artur Beterbiev, Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, Olesander Gvozdyk, Thomas Williams, Yunieski Gonzalez, or Marcus Browne. Those guys can all punch and would be perfect for Ward to get him ready for Kovalev. However, I’m not sure if Roc Nation Sports could get any of those fighters for Ward unless they were ready to pay them a lot of money for the fight.

Kovalev is taking the smart approach to getting ready for the Ward fight by facing an opponent with a similar fighting style in Isaac Chilemba in their scheduled fight on July 11 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The Kovalev-Chilemba fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing. It’s the perfect opponent for Kovalev to get prepared for the Ward fight, as Chilemba is a defensive artist much like Ward.

Ward looked like a much different fighter in his last bout against Sullivan Barrera compared to the guy he was in his best years at 168. Ward is now more of a pure defensive fighter than someone who is capable of taking the fight to his opponents. I think a combination of age and inactivity has changed Ward’s fighting style.

I’m not sure if #10 WBC Cleverly will agree to the fight with the 31-year-old Ward, however, because he’s the chance to fight WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer for his title. I believe it would be Braehmer’s third straight voluntary title defense if the World Boxing Association allows him to fight Cleverly.

The last time Braehmer fought his WBA mandatory was against Robin Krasniqi in March of 2015. Since then, Braehmer has fought Konni Konrad and Eduard Gutknecht. Those had to have been voluntary defenses for Braehmer. If the WBA lets him fight Cleverly, that would make three straight voluntary defenses.