By Scott Gilfoid: For some reason, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly badly wants 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins to watch his mismatch against the rusty fringe contender Tommy Karpency tonight. Why? I have no idea.

Karpency hasn’t fought in over a year, wasn’t ranked even in the top 15 by the WBO until the fight with Cleverly was signed and weeks old, and has fought two scrubs with losing records in his last two fights. So why should Hopkins bother to watch this hand-picked mismatch?

Cleverly said “If Mr. Hopkins could stay up a bit later this Saturday, as I guess he retires to bed earlier these days, he have a cup of cocoa and settles down to watch EPIX then he’ll see his next challenger live on his TV.”

I suppose Cleverly isn’t aware of the different time zones from the UK and America, as the fight between him and his overmatched opponent Karpency will be televised in the early afternoon in the United States, not late at night. It’s daytime in the U.S and I seriously doubt that Hopkins will be asleep for the fight unless he’s in an old folks home. But why on earth would Hopkins want to waste his time watching Cleverly beat up on a fringe contender?

If I was Cleverly, the last thing I would do is try and tip Hopkins off to watch me face a yet another bottom dweller. Heck, Cleverly just fought a bottom guy in #13 WBO ranked Tony Bellew in his last fight, and now fights’ another one. What is going on with the WBO? Why aren’t they putting their foot down and demanding that Cleverly mix in some top five challengers every other fight instead of letting him dine on bottom or near bottom guys in consecutive fights.

Oh yeah, Hopkins really needs to watch the Cleverly-Karpency fight, doesn’t he? If he’s into getting a good laugh, then yeah he should watch it. But what a pity. Why is this Cleverly guy not facing quality opposition? He barely beat #13 Bellew, and that’s not a good sign. Can you imagine Hopkins going life and death with Bellew? Based on the guys that Cleverly is facing, I wouldn’t bother fighting him if I were Hopkins. I’d tell him to fight some guys with a pulse, look good, and stop flapping his gums so much, and then I’d maybe consider facing Cleverly. Of course, he’d have to be willing to take a tiny cut of the revenue.