By William Mackay: WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (27-1, 20 KO’s) pretty much put to rest any talk of him facing unbeaten World Boxing Organization (WBO) light heavyweight interim champion Nathan Cleverly (21-0, 10 KO’s) for the time being by pointing out that the 24-year-old Cleverly is still unproven at the world level and that he didn’t exactly shine in his last fight against Nadjib Mohammedi. Cleverly faces WBO light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer on May 21st at the O2 Arena in London. This is going to be a tough fight for Cleverly, one where he’ll prove whether he belongs at the top or not.

Speaking with the Express, Froch said “He [Cleverly] is stepping up into world class now. From what I have seen of Braehmer, he is a tough fighter, so we are about to find out what Cleverly is all about. At the moment I would say he is still at domestic level, but if he beats Braehmer, he will definitely go up another notch. I thought Cleverly’s last performance was pretty poor, but all fighters can have an off day and maybe that was his one.”

Cleverly didn’t just look bad in the Mohammedi fight, he also looked bad in his fight with Karo Murat in his fight before that in September 2010. Cleverly leads with his head and seems to take pride in taking his opponents’ best shots and firing back his own. It’s working for him now with Cleverly facing fringe contenders but it’s going to hurt him eventually when Cleverly faces a quality fighter with power and/or boxing ability. At the same time, Cleverly is likely going to greatly shorten his career with all the head shots he’s taking. He’s got to learn some defense and try to get out of the way of some of these shots he’s been absorbing. Braehmer may be too much for him. However, Braehmer is getting old and is there to be taken. But in the future, Cleverly is going to have huge problems when and if he faces better light heavyweights like Chad Dawson, Tavoris Cloud, Beibut Shumenov, Zsolt Erdei and Jean Pascal unless he learns some defense.

Froch faces Glen Johnson, 42, on May 21st in the semifinals of the Super Six tournament. Froch is favored but Johnson intends on pulling off an upset by pressuring him until he folds.