By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (22-0, 11 KO’s) and #13 ranked WBO contender Tony Bellew (16-0, 10 KO’s) have reportedly agreed to a fight scheduled for October 15th. Contracts haven’t been signed yet but the two fighters are said to be close to signing.

This will hopefully get this fight out of the way once and for all. The two were supposed fight earlier in the year, but Bellew failed to make weight for the fight.

This is a huge disappointment for a lot of boxing fans who were hoping that Cleverly step it up against some high level world class opposition such as Jean Pascal, Beibut Shumenov or Tavoris Cloud. Bellew brings in good money on the domestic level, but he’s not in the class of the better fighters just mentioned. He recently went life death with journeyman Ovil McKenzie last December. In their rematch in July 2011, Bellew fought one of the most fights in memory, playing it safe and treating McKenzie like he was about to explode. It was a very, very boring fight, and not one that you would think would lead to a title shot against Cleverly.

However, Bellew is a safe, easy fight for Cleverly and with the money Bellew will bring it, it’s kind of understandable that he was selected for this fight. But hopefully this doesn’t become a habit because Cleverly really needs to finally start facing some recognizable world class fighters, not domestic level and/or fringe level guys like Bellew.

I don’t even see Bellew as a top 15 quality fighter. The World Boxing Organization seems to have given him a very generous ranking. I see Bellew between 30 and 40 in the light heavyweight rankings, certainly not someone to be picked for a world title given how badly he struggled against a domestic level journeyman McKenzie.

The only interest in Cleverly-Bellew will be the pre-fight hype. Bellew makes things interesting with his trash talking and his animated theatrics, but that’s about it. The fight will be one-sided and likely boring if Bellew decides to play it safe again. Either way, he gets wiped out by Cleverly. Another mismatch for Cleverly. He can make a career out of this I suppose.