By Simon Hirst: We are less than a week away from some cracking fights in Britain with Nathan Cleverly fight for his first world title at light-heavyweight against the tough, but aging Juergen Braehmer. Also on the bill is the grudge match everyone wants to see in George Groves – James DeGale. Also featuring is Frankie Gavin fighting for his first big title as the WBO Inter-Continental Welterweight crown is at stake in a local derby against Young Mutley which sees the winner gatecrash the WBO’s top ten.
Firstly, credit to Frank Warren who has put these fights together and put this show together. After the Haye-Harrison fight, Sky were put in a position where customer were not happy for a lack of value with very little boxing on offer. Then recently, Sky pulled Amir Khan’s fight for a lack of a good undercard to the main event, which despite being popular for Irish and British fans didn’t really capture the imagination of hardcore fight fans or the rest of the world. Despite attempts to put together a decent undercard, as it failed to materialize, effort doesn’t translate into value and the show, rightly in most minds, was pulled. However, no doubt about this card being pulled with matches that really salivate fight fans.
With people perhaps viewing Braehmer as one of the weaker world champions and Cleverly being one of the upcoming fighters, it really is an intriguing fight. Is Cleverly ready for this opportunity? Is Braehmer too good? We shall find out come fight night, but let’s look at the preview. Cleverly didn’t shine in his last fight, struggling against an opponent many expected him to beat easily. Braehmer pulled out of his last fight, a unification with Shumenov. Braehmer hasn’t fought in a year so there may be ring rust for Cleverly to take advantage of. Also in Cleverly’s favour is home advantage. Cleverly, from Wales, fights at London’s 02 arena, but is familiar with fighting in England. With a pro-Cleverly crowd, it may unsettle the experienced Braehmer, whilst influencing judges as every combination thrown by him will be largely received by them.
In support, a fight that hardcore fighters have wanted since they both turned professional. Some felt it would come at a later date, but with both being at a good level having unbeaten reputations, they have been paired up for this mouth-watering clash. Very different attitudes from both fighters. Groves has trained abroad, getting sparring with Dirrell, where as DeGale has stayed here and sparred with Cleverly. Not much is known about Groves’ training, except he gave Dirrell a black eye and also sported one recently. Being abroad, Groves has gotten away from the spotlight. DeGale has happily took that spotlight and seems somewhat obsessed with Groves, constantly taking about him at any given opportunity. A grudge going back to their amateur days, it is interesting to see how this plans out. Can Groves catch DeGale? Does Groves have a suspect chin? Will DeGale outbox Groves? Will there be a stoppage? How will they react after the fight? We shall find out next week.
Frankie Gavin’s title fight with Young Mutley is a test most expect him to pass with flying colours. Mutley hasn’t fought since being on Rendall Munroe’s undercard at the Skydome in Coventry, which was over a year ago. On the other hand, Gavin is coming off an impressive stoppage of Lomax. Mutley is best known for squeeking out a split decision win over Michael Jennings, but you could argue that that fact is now irrelevant. A stoppage is expected given the company Gavin would be joining if he was to get one.
So what happens after this? Should Cleverly lose, he will probably take a fight to gain some confidence before looking to rebuild a path to the top. Should he win, a voluntary defence should be issued as Cleverly is the number one contender. As for DeGale, should he win, expect a tough opponent after to build him towards a world title shot. Should he lose, what road he takes would be dependent on the method. A knockout loss would be better as that can be worked on, but if on points, it would be tougher to accept mentally knowing he went in there with his confidence and was out done. Groves would probably continue a rise towards European level, maybe targeting Magee. A Groves loss wouldn’t affect his progress too much and would continue to operate at the current level. Whatever happens, the real winners in this are the fans. This should set the standard. The main event maybe isn’t PPV worthy, but add the strong undercard and it is. There is no such thing as a PPV fighter in my book. There are just PPV fights and there are PPV cards; this is the latter.
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