Bellew: I was never given an offer to fight Cleverly

By Boxing News - 09/07/2012 - Comments

Image: Bellew: I was never given an offer to fight CleverlyBy William Mackay: Light heavyweight Tony Bellew (17-1, 11 KO’s) is saying that he was never given an offer to fight WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) despite the comments made by Cleverly’s promoter Frank Warren that Bellew had rejected the fight.

Bellew told Sportinglife.com “Despite what they’ve being saying, they never made me an offer to fight again. I physically went to Frank Warren’s office and begged for the opportunity and was told ‘no’. I’m maximum risk, zero gain.”

Bellew, 29, will be fighting former middleweight world title contender Edison Miranda (35-7, 30 KO’s) this Saturday night in a 12 round bout at the Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, London, United Kingdom.

Cleverly’s promoter Warren said to thesun.co.uk “Bellew rejected the offer of a rematch.”

Warren also mentioned that he attempted to land fights for Cleverly against Bernard Hopkins, and Beibut Shumenov, but was unable to make the fights happen.

Cleverly will be facing #9 WBO light heavyweight contender Vyacheslav Uzelkov in October in a fight that has hasn’t pleased a lot of boxing fans, as Uzelkov has already been soundly beaten by both Shumenov and Eduard Gutknecht in the last two years. Although Uzelkov has decent power, he’s perhaps not much better than Cleverly’s last title defense against American Tommy Karpency last February.

Cleverly took a lot of heat for that fight, because it was such a bad mismatch. It was not an appealing fight when it was first made and it turned out just as bad as many boxing fans thought it would be.

Cleverly’s fans want to see him step up and start facing better opposition but thus far his best opponent he’s faced was #14 WBO Bellew. Cleverly defeated Bellew by a narrow 12 round majority decision last year, and boxing fans wanted to see a rematch to try and clear up the controversy surrounding the decision. Cleverly instead faced Karpency in an incredibly boring fight.



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