By Sean McDaniel: Former World Boxing Organization (WBO) cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (32-5, 25 KO’s) is looking to get a fight against WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (22-0, 11 KO’s) next. Maccarinelli, 6’4″, might be a little too big and too powerful for Cleverly to risk fighting.

This would be a very dangerous fight for Cleverly, especially with him getting hurt by a light hitting Aleksy Kuziemski last weekend in Cleverly’s 4th round cut stoppage victory. Maccarinelli punches much harder than Kuziemski and Cleverly doesn’t have the power to really worry Maccarinelli like some of the guys he’s been beaten by in the recent past. It would be a fight where Cleverly would likely get knocked out unless he was able to score a knockout himself.

The problem for Cleverly is that he doesn’t punch as hard as guys that have beaten Maccarinelli in the past like Denis Lebedev, David Haye, Ola Afolabi and Alexander Frenkel. Cleverly is not in their class in terms of power and unless you have that kind of power, you’re not going to hurt Maccarinelli. And it’s imperative that you knock Maccarinelli, because he hits so awful hard. It would be a race against time for Cleverly. If he couldn’t hurt Maccarinelli, it would be only a matter of time before Maccarinelli knocked Cleverly out.

Speaking with the BBC Sport, Maccarinelli said “That’s definitely a fight that’s on the cards and what a big Welsh fight that would be…I will be a world champion again. Whether I fight Nathan, I do, I do and if I don’t, I don’t. But I’m going to give anyone on this planet a test, trust me.”

Cleverly wants to fight the best American fighters at light heavyweight. However, the best of the bunch, Bernard Hopkins, has no interest in fighting Cleverly. And the second best American, Chad Dawson, is probably much too good for a green fighter like Cleverly to compete with. Besides, Dawson will likely be facing Hopkins next, which makes him unavailable. Cleverly’s best bet for a fight on the near term is a bout against Maccarinelli.