Cleverly defeats Karpency in a pathetic mismatch: The win highlights Nathan’s lack of power

By Boxing News - 02/25/2012 - Comments

Image: Cleverly defeats Karpency in a pathetic mismatch: The win highlights Nathan's lack of powerBy Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly easily beat his hand-picked rusty fringe contender opponent Tommy Karpency by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff.The final judges’ scores were 120-108, 120-108 and 120-108. It was one of those fights that just shake your head and make you wonder why in all that’s good a mismatch of this kind was put together for Cleverly. This was embarrassing.

Why Cleverly wanted to fight this guy in front of his Welsh fans in Wales, I have no idea.

Cleverly won the fight no problem, as Karpency looked beaten down from the earliest rounds and just looking to save his hide and survive. But the win showed all of Cleverly’s faults – his lack of power, average hand speed, nonexistent defense and the utterly soft match making that’s quickly becoming a hallmark of Cleverly’s fights. While some British boxing fans see Cleverly as the next Joe Calzaghe, I can’t even begin to agree. I guess if you take away Calzaghe’s speed, defense, power and slickness, what’s left is Cleverly.

Karpency attempted to land some shots in the 1st round but was quickly beaten back with combinations. Cleverly looked like he was taunting his overmatched opponent, which I didn’t understand because Karpency was pooled from the bottom of the heap of the WBO for this fight and Cleverly should have been taking it easy on the guy. It’s not like Karpency ever had a real chance to win. Karpency hadn’t fought in over a year, and even then his last two fights were against guys with losing records. Still, he got the title fight off of a year away from the ring and two fights against guys with losing records. Great matchmaking, eh?



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