By Andrew Meggers-Lloyd: You’d have to have had your head buried in the sand over the last few years, to have not been impressed by the waves 23 year old Nathan Cleverly has been making in the ligh-heavyweight division, and in the Boxing world in general. The affable Welshman has many admirers throughout Europe following his convincing victories of late, namely against the previously unbeaten German hope, Karo Murat in Manchester in September. Not only has he been convincing in the Boxing ring, but he has combined his fights and training with studying for a Mathematics degree at Cardiff University, graduating with honours.

His lightening fast hand speed, combined with great feet and head movement, solid jab, and devastating right hand would make him a difficult fight against anybody in the light-heavyweight division right now, including fighters like Tavoris Cloud, Bernard Hopkins, Jean Pascal and Jurgen Brahmer to name a few. One fight I’d be particularly interested in seeing sometime in the near future, is a fight between the Welsh dragon and young Kazakhstani hope Beibut Shumenov. This 27 year old from Chimkent has been making waves of his own in the former Soviet state, and after only nine fights, captured the WBA Light-Heavyweight title in a hard-fought 12 round war against Spaniard Gabriel Campillo, a man who had already beaten Shumenov in their first encounter five months earlier, in 2009. In these fights, Shumenov showed immense heart and determination against his more experienced opponent. He has fast reflexes, a concrete chin and an immense desire for victory. One thing I’ve also noticed about Shumenov, is his extremely high level of resilience, particularly highlighted in his last fight against Viacheslav Uzelkov in July. He came off the canvas, having been knocked down in the first round, to score a unanimous points decision, boxing neatly and cunningly throughout.

I know the likelihood is that Cleverly will continue on his path to WBO glory by taking on Jurgen Brahmer, but I do hope these two young guns can cross paths somewhere in the near future as I believe it would be explosive and certainly hard fought. In my opinion, Cleverly would win, but I believe Shumenov would take him right to the edge of his capabilities and test every attribute that young Nathan holds dear. We wait with baited breath to see what the future holds in the light-heavyweight division.