Cleverly willing to fight Froch at 168

By Boxing News - 05/29/2013 - Comments

cleverly79By Scott Gilfoid: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12 KO’s) hasn’t been able to lure IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) into the ring to fight him despite having called him out over and over again for the past year.

Froch and his promoter’s response is that he fights at 168, and Cleverly fights at 175, so that fight can’t happen. Cleverly is now willing to move down to 168 for one fight to face Froch this year.

Cleverly’s father, Vince Cleverly, said to the southwalesargus.co.uk “He’s got himself a deal and we’ll happily accept that challenge. It would be a one-time thing. Nathan would bully Carl at super middleweight and for one fight we’d be happy to step down a weight.”

I don’t think Froch is going to take a fight with Cleverly, not now, not ever. I doubt Froch would even agree to fight Cleverly if he agreed to a rehydration limit for the fight. I just don’t think Froch likes the idea of fighting a younger fighter without a huge fan base where Froch would be in a no-win situation. If Froch loses to Cleverly, then he’d be considered over the hill.

If Froch struggles against him, then would still hurt Froch and cause a lot of fans to see him as a fighter that was never all that good to begin with. If Froch beats Cleverly, he won’t get much credit because Cleverly still hasn’t beaten a fighter that you can remotely call a good fighter so it wouldn’t be a big deal if Froch beat him.

I think Froch is nearing the end of his career, and I doubt he’s going to be facing any younger fighters except for maybe George Groves, and the only reason I can see Froch taking that fight is because his promoter Eddie Hearn really wants him to take it.

The thing is Froch should fight Groves sooner rather than later because if he gets too old, he might end up losing to him. Froch looked horrible last Saturday night in barely beating a fighter that wasn’t even throwing punches in Mikkel Kessler.

Froch looks like he’s really gone downhill lately, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Groves beat him at this point in Froch’s career. Groves looked huge in beating Noe Gonzalez on Froch’s undercard last Saturday night, and think Groves would have a big weight advantage over Froch if that fight were to take place.



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