Cleverly: Karpency was probably the toughest opponent I ever faced

By Boxing News - 02/25/2012 - Comments

Image: Cleverly: Karpency was probably the toughest opponent I ever facedBy Scott Gilfoid: After easily beating a badly overmatched Tommy Karpency (21-3-1, 14 KO’s) by a lopsided unanimous decision on Saturday night, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) was pouring buckets of compliments all over the head of Karpency, saying he was not only the hardest hitter he’d ever been in with but also the toughest opponent. Is Cleverly for real here?

It looks like Cleverly was trying to build up an opponent with words to make his mismatch look a little better than it was. Does Cleverly think boxing fans are going to listen to his words and think Karpency was a great opponent? Let’s be honest here, Karpency shouldn’t have never been picked out as an opponent in the first place for Cleverly; not when the guy hasn’t fought for ever a year and hadn’t faced a real threat since he was beaten by Karo Murat in May 2010. Karpency’s next two opponents after that loss had records of 3-7 and 10-16 going into the Cleverly fight. How then was Karpency even chosen for Cleverly?

Cleverly beat Karpency by the scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 120-108. It’s hard to imagine what Cleverly was talking about given how easy this fight was for him. In his last fight against Tony Bellew last October, Cleverly struggled to a controversial 12 round majority decision in a fight that few people thought he actually won. Bellew hit Karpency early and often with mammoth shots that looked to me to be a lot harder than the love taps that Karpency was giving him.

Cleverly said this after tonight’s fight with Karpency: “He was probably the toughest opponent I have faced over the distance.”

The fight hardly looked like a tough one for Cleverly. It actually looked like he was carrying the guy rather than looking to obliterate him. I saw no urgency at all with Cleverly against his overmatched foe.

There really wasn’t any particular round where you could say Karpency did well. Sure, he’d land some shots every now and then, but he’d get beaten back every time would have to either cringe and cover up or clinch. It was just bad boxing to watch.



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