By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (25-0, 12 KO’s) has a really tough title defense coming up next month against #1 WBO Robin Krasniqi (39-2, 15 KO’s) on March 16th at the Wembley Arena, in London, United Kingdom.
Instead of putting his entire focus on winning this fight, Cleverly is looking past it towards his next title defense, if there is one, against the former WBO light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer.
Cleverly said to Sky Sports “It’s time to get it [Braehmer fight] dusted. It’s definitely a fight I want because I’ll have set the record straight then…I want to beat this guy in the ring and once we get Krasniqi done we’ll get that opportunity.”
Notice how Cleverly said “once we get Krasniqi done.” He’s looking past this fight as if the fight is a mere trifle. The last person that should be looking past anyone is Cleverly, who looked unimpressive to the extreme in his last fight against 2nd tier fighter Shawn Hawk last November.
Cleverly was hit by pretty much everything that Hawk threw at him in the fight, and one point he looked stunned. You’ve got to like Cleverly’s confidence but is it reality based confidence? I mean, he’s not looking great against even the poor opposition that’s continually being pooled for him. Maybe that’s why Cleverly’s so confident?
He could have the Amir Khan syndrome where he’s just so cocky because of all that terrible opposition that’s been put in with him to where he now sees himself as being able to breeze past someone like Krasniqi.
What happens if Krasniqi spanks him? Are we’re going to have Cleverly talking about it was just a freak thing or will he admit that he blew it by looking past Krasniqi when he should have been focusing on him 100%. I see it this way: Cleverly has been in mostly terrible opposition his entire career, and his record is obviously inflated.
He’s not someone that can look past anyone because he’s got no defensive skills, and he basically beats guys by outworking them rather than blasting them out. Because he has no power, Cleverly has to take a lot of punishment to win his fights. There is no easy fights for a guy Cleverly, and that’s why he shouldn’t even be worrying about Braehmer. Cleverly’s like a car that can break down at anytime.
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