By Will Jackson: On Bunce’s Boxing Hour WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly said in the next year he will take part in a 4-man tournament, including him, Beibut Shumenov, Bernard Hopkins and Tavoris Cloud. But what concerns me about this is that in order for Cleverly to beat all those guys he has to get angles in his game. He has to learn he cannot stand in front of his opponents all night. He has to get some lateral movement.
I know that this is his style but because of this he will take a lot of punishment. This will mean he will not have a long career at the top. I know he is only 25 years old and undefeated with a good chin but for someone who is a pressure fighter 25 is coming up to their peak and Nathan will be past it at 30 if he carries on taking punches like he does (example of Ricky Hatton).
I also think he needs a better jab to beat Hopkins. Everybody thinks you just need to throw more punches to beat Hopkins but that’s wrong. You also need an OK jab as this will stop him sneaking on the inside. This lack of a jab was why Hopkins was able to creep inside on Joe Calzaghe at times. Don’t get me wrong Calzaghe’s jab was OK but it wasn’t really really stiff. Cleverly will also need a good jab to be able to compete with Shumenov while a good jab would also help in a fight with Cloud as his reach is already 2 inches longer.
I know that does not sound much but when you have not got very quick footwork and you are an inside fighter it will be that much harder to get on the inside or to even box a boxer who is shorter with a longer reach than you.
Because of this I do not feel Cleverly should step it up, he might win the tournament but only if he turns up as a completely different fighter and putting him in the tournament is just to risky. I just don’t think he has proven himself to be anywhere near world class.
He looked good in his last fight against Tommy Karpency but Cleverly was at home against an opponent who is not even a full time professional boxer. His day job is a nurse. Cleverly also looked like he had no pop in his punches. He was 100% in control of that fight but he still couldn’t knock Karpency out. In order to be a good champion in the Heavier weight divisions you need to have power or very impressive boxing skills and sadly the present Cleverly has neither
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