By Michael Lieberman: Undefeated interim World Boxing Organization (WBO) light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (21-0, 10 KO’s) will be facing the winner of the January 8th fight between WBO light heavyweight champion Jurgen Brahmer (36-2, 29 KO’s) and WBA Super World light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (10-1, 6 KO’s).

Cleverly, only 23, is looking to make his mark in 2011. Last year, he looked very impressive in stopping previously unbeaten top light heavyweight contender Karo Murat in the 10th round in September. It was perhaps the best performance in Cleverly’s five year pro career.

Cleverly followed that up with a less than eye-pleasing 12 round unanimous decision over Najib Mohammedi (23-2, 12 KO’s) on December 11th to capture the interim WBO light heavyweight crown. Cleverly seemed to take Mohammedi too lightly, and paid for it by getting hit an awful lot of times during the fight.

A lot of the shots could have been avoided had Cleverly used his boxing skills rather than just looking to run over the guy. It was the same kind of thing that Cleverly did in his win over Murat. However, in that fight, Murat had less offensive skills compared to Mohammedi and was unable to connect with as many shots on the wide open Cleverly.

The final judge’s scores for the Cleverly-Mohammedi fight were 115-112, 116-111 and 115-113. They showed how close the fight was. Again, this could have been avoided had Cleverly not foolishly slugged with this guy instead of boxing him from the outside. Cleverly will have to adapt, learn from this fight and focus more on using his jab if he wants to beat the winner of the Brahmer vs. Shumenov fight. He won’t be able to run those guys over like he did Murat.