By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight interim champion Nathan Cleverly has nothing but respect and admiration for the tough and talented British super middleweight champion James DeGale (10-0, 8 KO’s) after spending the past two weeks sparring with him to get ready for their perspective bouts on May 21st at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), Greenwich, London, England.

DeGale, 25, is facing unbeaten Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (12-0, 10 KO’s), whereas the 23-year-old Cleverly is facing World Boxing Organization light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer. DeGale gave Cleverly some excellent sparring, perhaps even showing more in that short period of time than what Cleverly will be facing against Braehmer.

Cleverly had this to say about his tough sparring with DeGale: “It’s the hardest sparring I’ve ever had, and remember, I sparred with Joe Calzaghe and Enzo Maccarinelli when they were both world champions.”

There it is, folks. Cleverly telling it like it is. It seems that Cleverly and DeGale were pretty evenly matched, even though Cleverly is the bigger fighter and fighting at a heavier weight. This just shows you how good DeGale is. Groves is in deep, deep trouble unless he can somehow develop some world class talent in the next three weeks before his important clash with DeGale. Groves is going to get spanked something fierce in this fight unless he can look a whole lot better than what he’s been looking since he turned pro.

Groves got all he could handle in his fight with Kenny Anderson not too long ago, getting knocked down in that fight. DeGale would make easy work of someone like Anderson. That just shows how far apart DeGale and Groves are in the talent department. I just hope DeGale doesn’t finish off Groves too quickly. I’d like to see him give Groves some rounds so we can see DeGale toy with Groves for a while before he takes him out.