By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten light heavyweight contender Nathan Cleverly (20-0, 10 KO’s) is open to fighting International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (21-0, 18 KO’s). Cleverly, 23, seems to have become a little cocky after beating light heavyweight contender Karo Murat by a 10th round stoppage in September.

However, Cleverly needs to sit back and his fight against Murat two or three more times so that he can understand how far he has to go before he’ll be on Cloud’s level.

Right now, I see Cleverly as level or two below Cloud, and I don’t see that changing with time unless Cleverly develops some power and leans how to protect himself better from incoming. Cleverly was tagged all night by the limited Murat, and it was sickening to see Cleverly take so many hard shots flush. I know Cleverly is into mathematics, and all I could think of when he was getting pounded was whether he would still be able to count if he continues to get hit so often.

In an article at Walesonline.co.uk, Cleverly said “Cloud’s more than welcome to come to Wales and try and knock me out. But quite a few fighters have tried and got nowhere. It’s fantastic that the top American fighters are now sitting up and taking notice of me.

It shows how far I have come in a few short years and I’m still only 23.” I hate to be the one to break the bad news to Cleverly, but the reason why Cloud is taking notice of him is because Cleverly is ranked #4 by the IBF, and Cloud has to take notice of anyone that’s ranked in the top #5. How can he ignore Cleverly when the IBF has him ranked so high.

That sounds like Cleverly is insecure or something, because of course he’s going to be noticed if he’s ranked. But Cloud obviously has also noticed Cleverly after seeing what I’ve seen of Cleverly – a basic fighter without much power, zero head movement, no ability to block punches and a tendency to plod straight into punches head first.

Cleverly fights like someone out of the 50s, except that he doesn’t have the power of the good fighters from that era. Cloud would simply overwhelm Cleverly with punches and with his much bigger power and would stop him. I’m wondering why Cleverly is asking Cloud, the IBF champion, to go to Wales to fight him.

Why should Cloud have to go to a challenger’s country to fight? Since when is Cleverly calling the shots? It seems to be the challengers are the ones that have to do the traveling, and it makes wonder whether Cleverly is afraid to fight in a foreign country. Is he hiding behind the security of home crowds in the UK?

If Cloud is required to travel to Wales just to fight Cleverly, then I’m afraid Cleverly will never fight him then. It does make a good excuse, though. When people ask why hasn’t Cleverly fought Cloud for a title, Cleverly can say that Cloud, the champion, won’t come to my country and fight me. That’ll go over real big, I bet.