By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight interim champion Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 10 KO’s) wants to fight his next bout against World Boxing Organization light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer (36-2, 29 KO’s) at the Millennium stadium, in Cardiff, Wales. My not fight the full champion in his native Germany? Why should Cleverly get to have his way and fight the bout in his country when he’s not even the full champion?

What is up with the challengers trying to call the shots? Cleverly needs to fight Braehmer in Germany and like it. If Cleverly is all that, he should be able to beat Braehmer no matter where the fight takes place, and if he’s not, he’s going to get badly exposed. It’s no secret that Cleverly looked absolutely horrible in his last fight against Nadjub Mohammedi on December 11th, winning a close 12 round decision. I had the fight scored a draw because Cleverly took massive shots all fight long.

It was like Cleverly’s head was a giant door stop for Mohammedi’s shots. There was no head or torso movement from Cleverly in that fight. He was just walking continuously forward taking incoming fire one after another without stop. It was like watching someone getting pelted by flying ducks as they walked through a hurricane. It was terrible to see Cleverly getting hit so much. The guy has some major flaws in his game and I expect Braehmer to expose those flaws when they step foot in the ring. Cleverly is a decent fighter.

I rate Cleverly around number #10 in the light heavyweight division behind Jean Pascal, Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson, Tavoris Cloud, Zsolt Erdei, Beibut Shumenov, Dimitry Sukhotsky and Gabriel Campillo. In time, Cleverly may develop into a good contender but right now I see him as fodder for Braehmer.