By William Mackay: Promoter Frank Warren believes that his fighter WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) could rebound well from a loss to WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins if the fight takes place in the summer like Warren wants it to. Cleverly is facing #4 WBO contender Robin Krasniqi (37-2, 13 KO’s) on April 28th at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, UK.

Warren appears to be already looking past that fight towards a clash against 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins in Wales in the summer.

Warren told the BBC.co.uk “It [Cleverly-Hopkins] would be a tough fight but even if he got beat, so what? He is young enough to come again. Even if you loe a fight it is how you lose a fight, and I just feel for Nathan it would be a great fight for him to take.”

Of course, it’s a win-win fight for Cleverly and Warren to make because it’ll bring in a lot of money in Wales. Cleverly will likely lose the fight but it would make a name for him by him facing Hopkins because the fight would get a tremendous amount of publicity.

There are a couple of problems that might stop the Cleverly-Hopkins fight. First of all, Hopkins has a fight against Chad Dawson on April 28th, the same night as the Cleverly-Krasniqi fight. I wouldn’t bet a dime that Hopkins will win that fight because Dawson looked a cut above him last October before Hopkins hit the deck with an injury. I’d say the chances of Hopkins beating Dawson are quite low based on the action in that fight. Dawson looked to be on his way to out-boxing Hopkins. Thus far, Warren and Cleverly have been kind of quiet about what they would do if Dawson emerges as the winner of the Hopkins fight. My guess is they’ll either still try and get the Hopkins right or they’ll ignore Dawson completely and look to fight another opponent in the Krasniqi mold. I doubt that Cleverly will face his mandatory challenger Dmitry Sukhotsky. I don’t know when that fight will happen but my guess is not in 2012 and maybe not even 2013. I think Dawson will be ignored by Warren and Cleverly, and for good reason – he’d beat the defensively wide open Cleverly like a drum. It would be too easy for Dawson and it wouldn’t be one of those situations where Cleverly shines in losing. He’d lose bad and look amateurish against Dawson.

Warren continues on about the Hopkins-Cleverly fight “I think we can kae this fight. I’ve been talking to Richard Schaefer [Golden Boy Promotions CEO] and it was him who suggested the fight to me.”

Too bad they didn’t suggest making the Hopkin-Cleverly fight BEFORE the Dawson-Hopkins fight because it’s going to look bad Cleverly facing the LOSER of the Dawson-Hopkins fight rather than the winner. Hopkins won’t beat Dawson and it’s going to make Cleverly look bad facing Hopkins without his WBC light heavyweight title. With Cleverly already facing less than dangerous opposition since he was given the WBO title by the World Boxing Organization out of the ring after the former champion was stripped of the title, it could make Cleverly look like a cherry picker. It would be better for him to fight the winner of the Hopkins-Dawson fight rather than the loser, but that’s likely what will happen. Dawson isn’t even being mentioned for Cleverly and he’s the one that is going to probably win the Hopkins vs. Dawson fight.