By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 11 KO’s) says that former cruiserweight world champion Enzo Maccarinelli 33-5, 26 KO’s) has to win some more fights and prove himself before he’ll give him a fight for the title.

This sounds strange given that Cleverly just faced Tony Bellew, a fighter who has faced zero top tier opponents before fighting for the title against Cleverly last October, and Bellew was only ranked #13 in the division. Cleverly’s father and trainer, Vince, says that Cleverly should be ready to fight Maccarinelli in two years in 2013.

Vince says “Nathan will be stronger then.” So which is it? Does Maccarinelli need to prove himself or does Cleverly need to get stronger? I think Cleverly wants no part of facing Maccarinelli and I don’t blame him a bit. I think Maccarinelli would make easy work over Cleverly if he were bold enough to fight him. Maccarinelli hits too hard and he’d be around for a long time in this fight because Cleverly can’t punch.

I think Vince is wrong if he thinks Cleverly will be any stronger in two years. He likely won’t. Cleverly will probably stand a better chance then but only because Maccarinelli will be two years older and will be 33 then.

It’s sad though that Maccarinelli won’t get a chance at fighting Cleverly. I can’t respect a fighter that ducks another one and I definitely think Cleverly doesn’t want any part of Maccarinelli. There’s too much to lose I guess.

Cleverly wants to fight Carl Froch and Bernard Hopkins. I guess because there’s a ready-made excuse built into losing to those guys that wouldn’t be there if he were to get beaten by Maccarinelli.

Unfortunately, Enzo has lost a lot of the respect that he once had from fans due to his knockout losses to David Haye, Ola Afolabi, Denis Lebedev and Alexander Frenkel, even though all four of those guys would take Cleverly apart at the seams as far as I can tell.

I can’t see Cleverly beating any of those guys, can you? Cleverly against Haye= KO win for Haye. Cleverly against Lebedev = KO win for Lebedev. And the same with Afolabi and Frenkel; Cleverly would almost surely lose to both of those guys, because they are a big step up from Bellew and Cleverly went life and death with that guy. I think a fight between Cleverly and Maccarinelli is a toss-up fight. If Cleverly doesn’t get Maccarinelli out of there, Cleverly would get knocked out. That’s just the way it is. Too bad he won’t fight him.