By William Mackay: I’m still trying to figure out what the interest is in WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly’s promoter choosing #4 WBO contender Robin Krasniqi (37-2, 13 KO’s) for Cleverly’s next title defense rather than Cleverly’s overdue mandatory challenger Dmitriy Sukhotsky, who the WBO briefly attempted without luck to get Cleverly to finally make a defense against this fighter. However, Cleverly’s promoter Frank Warren prefers the 24-year-old Krasniqi for Cleverly’s next defense at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, United Kingdom.

So what is the appeal for Warren in choosing Krasniqi over the seemingly harder hitting and much more dangerous and experience Sukhotsky? I spoke to some of my German boxing friends about Krasniqi to see if he’s any kind of big star in Germany and they all said no. He’s not even on the radar screen. One friend even said he was fighting at some kind of mall or something at what time instead of an arena. So why is Krasniqi being picked over Sukhotsky if Krasniqi isn’t even remotely a star in Germany. Why choose him?

Cleverly hasn’t exactly been burning up the light heavyweight division since the World Boxing Organization gave him the title outside of the ring. He’s faced Aleksy Kuziemski, Tony Bellew and Tommy Karpency. None of them were dangerous and Bellew and Karpency were ranked near the bottom of the top 15. What happened to Cleverly? He was supposed to have been a different type of champion who wouldn’t take the easy fights. Why is he picking from the bottom of the rankings for those guys?

And Krasniqi is perhaps even worse those fighters. He’s ranked #4 but he’s fought most of his career against tier fighters and there’s no one on his resume that you can point to and say this guys is a good fighter. It’s been fodder all the way. Krasniqi is just another soft opponent for Cleverly to look good against.

So my question again is why Krasniqi now and instead of Cleverly’s mandatory? Is Cleverly not ready to take on a fighter like Sukhotsky in terms of development? If not, then he needs to give up the title or have it stripped from him by the WBO. I’d hate to be Sukhotsky right now and see myself getting skipped over for my title shot so that Cleverly can face yet another optional title defense. How long can Cleverly go before facing his mandatory? 2 years? 3 years? He’s had the belt since last May and that’s 11 months. Will Cleverly make another year without a defense against his mandatory?