By Nate Anderson: Making his first defense of his Commonwealth (British Empire) light heavyweight title, undefeated Nathan Cleverly (14-0, 4 KOs) stopped Kenyan Douglas Otieno (18-2, 8 KOs) in the 4th round of a scheduled 12-round bout at the Kingsway Leisure Centre, Widnes, in Cheshire. Cleverly, 21, dominated all four rounds of the fight, ending matters with a powerful right uppercut to the head, sending Otieno down flat on his back on the canvas where he was then counted out at 2:39 of the 4th round by referee Phil Edwards.
Cleverly, 6’1 1/2″, using a two and half inch height and five inch reach advantage, pounded the over-matched Otieno from the distance with long jabs in the first round. Otieno, 27, fighting for the first time out of Kenya, pushed the fight towards Cleverly in the early going, trying to get in close to land his shorter punches. This enabled Cleverly to nail him with hard right hands on the way in, snapping Otieno’s head back.
Not to be dissuaded, Otieno kept pouring in and began holding and hitting, turning the fight into a bitter, wrestling inside fight as much as possible. Cleverly proved to be more than a match for the inside war, however, as he often hit Otieno with his free hands while being held by one of his arms. During the first round, Cleverly landed several hard right hands to the head of Otieno. For his part, Otieno was limited to a few harmless left hands at close range.
In the second round, Cleverly continued to use his jab and right hands to inflict damage against Otieno. Once again, Otieno began to hold and hit. However, Cleverly was ready for him, hitting him with good right hands while having his left arm being held.
In the 3rd round, Cleverly began opening up with big power shots, landing hard punches to the body. After one particularly hard right to the midsection of Otieno, he backed up looking slightly hurt from the shot.
In the 4th round, Cleverly continued tirelessly pounding away at Otieno with hard punches to the body and head. Near the end of the round, he hurt him with a left-right to the head. Otieno continued fight, though, but was taking serious punishment for the next few moments until getting hit with a short right uppercut by Cleverly, sending him down flat on his back. Otieno laid there for several moments, hardly moving. At that point, referee Phil Edwards moved in and halted the fight. After the fight, Cleverly said “To knock out a fighter with one punch, it proves my power is improving. Anyone that steps in my way, I’m ready to fight.”
Comments are closed.