By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) reportedly came over to the Freddie Roach’s Wildcard gym and sparred a bit with unbeaten world contender Lateef Kayode and apparently did a reasonable job during the sparring session. Roach now says he wouldn’t mind having Cleverly as one of his fighters in his training stable.
Speaking with the BBC Sport, Roach said “I wouldn’t hesitate to take him on. He’s definitely talented. I’ve love to have him. We haven’t discussed him coming over here yet but he’s here and maybe there’s a reason why he is here.”
So is Cleverly beating around the bush hoping Roach will say the first word by asking or did he just come to the Wildcard gym knowing that the place is always filled with media and the Hollywood crowd?
My perspective on this is that Roach needs to step back and realize a sparring session with his cruiserweight Kayode doesn’t mean that Cleverly has the goods. We already saw Cleverly go life and death with a bottom ranked Tony Bellew last year in win a controversial decision. I don’t expect Roach to have seen that fight, but he needs to realize that all that glitters isn’t gold.
There’s a lot of fools gold floating around and if he lands Cleverly in his training stable he could very well end up with another Brit like Amir Khan who won’t pan out against the top fighters in the sport. I know technically Cleverly is a world champion given that he’s holding down the WBO strap right now, but if you look at the fighters that Cleverly has faced since picking up the strap – Aleksy Kuziemski, Tony Bellew and Tommy Karpency – you see he’s totally untested still and is more like a contender than a world champion.
Cleverly was given the WBO title by the World Boxing Organization outside of the ring rather than inside it and he’s still not faced anyone that you could call remotely a good fighter. That’s not going to change on Saturday when Cleverly fights replacement opponent Shawn Hawk (23-2-1, 17 KO’s) at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, USA. Hawk is a second tier fighter that has got the fight due to Cleverly’s original opponent Ryan Coyne not being able to take the fight.
Cleverly’s opponent before that Tommy Karpency was a fringe contender, as was Cleverly’s opponent before that. He’s totally untested and a lot of boxing fans have given up on him and see him as just someone that fights little lower ranked guys instead of the best fighters. This Saturday’s fight between Cleverly and Hawk won’t change that perception unfortunately. Cleverly wants the big fights but he’s not fighting the guys that can get him the big fights. It’s like trying to land a big job offer by working at low level service jobs.
Roach needs to think long and hard before he takes on another fighter that could potentially make him look bad. The smoke still hasn’t cleared from Roach’s bad experience with Khan, and now he wants to get another fighter where things could potentially end badly for him? I wouldn’t do it if were Roach. I saw Cleverly’s talent stretched to the limit in a war against a bottom #15 contender in Bellew and that fight speaks volumes about Cleverly’s limits as a fighter. Roach needs to sit down, get a full cup of good coffee and watch Cleverly struggle against Bellew. I think after watching that fight Roach will opt not to waste time training Cleverly.
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