By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) hasn’t exactly been sitting the world on fire since being given the World Boxing Organization title by the WBO after champion Jurgen Brahmer failed to make the fight.

Since getting the title, Cleverly has fought the following fighters: Aleksy Kuziemski, Tony Bellew and Tommy Karpency. Cleverly’s opponent was decent, but far great. However, his last two opponents have been lower ranking opposition and I’m wondering how many times consecutively that Cleverly will be matched against guys #11 and lower without the WBO stepping and say, ‘Hey, about facing your mandatory or at least a top five contender.’ Come on, let’s get with it already.

I thought Cleverly was supposed to have been a new type of champion that took on only the best each fight out. Instead, we’re getting choices from the bottom in some kind of upside down matchmaking. I do not understand it but it makes interesting guessing in terms of the future. I think I can already predict who and what ranking his next opponent will be just by looking at the guys Cleverly’s been matched again. His fight last Saturday against #11 WBO contender Karpency was a joke, one of the worst mismatches I’ve seen in a long time. That’s not because Cleverly is good, but rather Karpency was so bad. It was a horrible match and sad to see.

Cleverly is scheduled to be back in the ring on April 28th against a still to be determined opponent at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, UK. This is supposed to be Cleverly’s last fight before a hoped for fight against the Bernard Hopkins – Chad Dawson winner in the summer. I don’t see Cleverly getting within a 1000 miles of fighting Dawson if beats Hopkins on April 28th, and believe me, Dawson WILL beat Hopkins. Will Cleverly face Dawson in the summer? Are you kidding? No way, not in this in this lifetime. Dawson is just too damn good. Dawson would make Cleverly look worse than Cleverly did with Karpency. It wouldn’t be a fight, hence I can’t see Dawson getting the fight. It would be like Adrien Broner was hoping to face Ricky Burns. What we saw instead was Burns vacate and move out of that division entirely to pick up a vacant WBO lightweight title.

Anyway, here’s my pick of who I see Cleverly facing next on April 28th: #14 Karius Kariuki, #13 Isaac Chilemba, #12 Dustin Dirks and #10 Marius Vincous Olivera. My guess is Kariuki gets the call. This would mean that Cleverly’s last three title defenses have come against fighters ranked #13, #11 and #13. Is that milking a title? It sure seems that way to me.