By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (25-0, 12 KO’s) will be facing 48-year-old Bernard Hopkins next year if he gets his way. Unfortunately, Cleverly may not get his wish because Hopkins is going after bigger game in the form of IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19 KO’s) on March 19th, and if Hopkins wins that fight he’s going to no doubt look for fights against the bigger names at 175 like Jean Pascal, Chad Dawson or Beibut Shumenov.
Cleverly, 25, said to thesun.co.uk “Hopkins tops my list and talks with him are ongoing.”
Cleverly, due to his career-long mostly weak opposition, has put himself in a bad place to try and get bigger fights. By choosing to fight mainly in the UK for the first seven years of his pro career, he’s basically unknown fighter in terms of the U.S. It is what it is, he’s someone that there isn’t a real high appeal to face because of the lack of an upside.
That might change if he chooses to fight all of his fights in the U.S, but he obviously isn’t going to do that. As such, he won’t he’ll likely be ignored by Hopkins next year, the year and the year after that. And, Cleverly likely won’t get Shumenov or Cloud either unless he agrees to fight in the U.S.
I haven’t heard too much about Cleverly wanting to fight Dawson or Cloud for some reason. I guess it’s because both of them are so talented in their different ways. Dawson is a boxer with amazing boxing skills to go along with his size, speed and reach. He’s very hard to hit and he’d be a problem for a straight up European fighter like Cleverly without speed and big power.
Cloud is a fighter with good power and a really high work rate. He throws a lot of punches just like Cleverly except that he’s got better power and he’s a better inside fighter. I guess that be one of the reasons why we don’t hear Cleverly bringing his name up all that much.
Cleverly has a fight scheduled against Robin Krasniqi (39-2, 15 KO’s) on March 16th in the UK. The venue obviously isn’t going to help Cleverly win fans in the U.S, and it’s just another missed opportunity for Cleverly to try and build a fan base in the United States. Krasniqi is a pretty good fighter and I’m giving him a small chance of pulling off an upset due to his superior speed, form and power.
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