By William Mackay: The WBO has given WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) permission to bypass his mandatory challenger Dmitry Sukhotsky to face little known WBO European light heavyweight Robin Krasniqi (37-2, 13 KO’s) on April 28th at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. It seems that the venue is the deal here, not the fight. The fight is another mismatch coming out the door.

The Cleverly vs. Krasniqi winner has to face the WBO mandatory challenger Sukhotsky within 120 days, but we could be seeing something else, as both Cleverly and his promoter Frank Warren are talking about wanting 47-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins in Wales.

They seem really dialed into wanting to fight Hopkins, perhaps overlooking the fact that Hopkins is facing Chad Dawson on April 28th and the chances are very high that Hopkins will lose that fight. However, Cleverly already said he’d still be interested in fighting Hopkins even if he gets beaten by Dawson. In other words, Hopkins is the one they want no matter what happens in the Hopkins-Dawson fight. Dawson might be considered a little too good, as he’s not old as the hills and he’s very hard to hit. In my mind I see a fight between Cleverly and Dawson ending up as mismatch with Dawson clowning Cleverly.

Cleverly told he Telegraph “I need to win this fight in style as I want Hopkins in Wales.”

Frank Warren, his promoter said, “Hopefully should be Hopkins and Cleverly, fighting each other next.”

So what happened with Cleverly facing his mandatory challenger Sukhotsky? The WBO says he can fight Krasniqi now as long as he fights his mandatory in 120 days, and already they’re talking Hopkins next. Looks like the mandatory challenger is going to have to sit and wait even longer from the looks of it.