By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 11 KO’s) has put himself in a no win situation by picking little known fringe contender Tommy Karpency (21-2-1, 14 KO’s) to defend his title against on February 25th in Wales.

Cleverly has picked out a guy that is really more of a mid-second tier type of opponent and is giving him a shot at his world title. If Cleverly loses to Karpency, then it will confirm what a lot of people think of him as a paper champion. If Cleverly struggles to beat Karpency, which is a possibility given how poor Cleverly has been looking in the past three years, then he’ll further look like a paper champion.

And finally if Cleverly easily beats Karpency, it won’t be a big deal because Karpency isn’t even ranked in the top 15 by the World Boxing Organization. He is ranked #10 by the WBA, but it’s hard to even begin to understand why they ranked him that high when he’s never beaten a top tier opponent and was schooled by the only top tier opponent he’s faced in Karo Murat.

Cleverly is going to get zero credit for beating this guy and will likely take a ton of heat if he goes life and death with Karpency like he did in his last fight against #13 ranked Tony Bellew. Cleverly looked painfully bad in that fight, like someone that deserved to be ranked at the bottom of the division and not holding a title.

Cleverly probably didn’t deserve to get a win over Bellew and you have to wonder how long Cleverly can last as a champion if he can’t even beat a bottom 15 fighter like Bellew. But I guess that’s why Cleverly is facing Karpency and not someone ranked higher. There must be some worry there, and I can understand that. If I was managing Cleverly, I would try to match with Karpency type fighters any chance I can get because I would be worried that he’d get beaten by pretty much anyone that I matched him against.