By Scott Gilfoid: #1 ranked WBO light heavyweight contender Nathan Cleverly (20-0, 10 KO’s) will be facing replacement opponent Nadjib Mohammedi (23-1, 12 KO’s) of France on Saturday night in a bout for the interim World Boxing Organization (WBO) light heavyweight title at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, England. Cleverly’s previously scheduled opponent Alejandro Lakatus came up with a bad case of pneumonia and had to pull out of the fight.
Instead of finding a 1st tier opponent to replace him, Mohammedi was found from the 2nd tier ranks to fight Cleverly for the vacant WBO title. I don’t know how they could be fighting for the vacant WBO belt when Mohammedi isn’t even ranked in the top 20 in the light heavyweight division among the top sanctioning organizations as far as I can tell. In looking at Mohammedi, I can only recognize one name and that’s Thierry Karl, a decent fighter, who knocked Mohammedi out in the 1st round last year in September. I suppose Cleverly will have easy time being this Mohammedi guy, but couldn’t they have found someone better than this? How about Gabriel Campillo, Hugo Garay, Adrian Diaconu or Chris Henry?
I’m not liking this card very much. We got #1 ranked WBO welterweight contender Kell Brook facing someone by the name of Philip Kotey, who I have never heard of in my life until now. Way to go, another mismatch. I have no idea what Brook did to deserve his number 1 ranking by the World Boxing Organization. And this fight looks horrible on paper, and I expect it to be even worse in real life.
Matthew Macklin faces Ruben Varon in middleweight action. Why isn’t Macklin facing better opposition at this point in his career? The guy 28 already. It’s time he start facing someone with a pulse.
The James DeGale vs. Paul Smith fight is the only good fight I can see on this card, although I don’t think this is going to be a very competitive fight. DeGale is too good for the slow and awkward moving Smith.
Billy Joe Saunders vs. Tony Randell, Larry Olubamiwo vs. Samir Kurtagic, Liam Smith vs. Matt Scriven, Tony Bellew vs. Ovill McKenzie, Joe McNally vs. Bertrand Aloa, Paul Butler vs. Anwar Alfadli, Ronnie Heffron vs. Wayne Downing and Joe Selkirk vs. Steve O’Meara round out the card. I don’t particularly care about any of these fights.
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