By Jim Dower: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO’s) came out of the blocks fighting timidly tonight and he paid for it big time in getting dominated and stopped by the hard hitting Sergey Kovalev (22-0-1, 20 KO’s) in the 4th round at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
Cleverly came out fighting defensively by staying on the outside in what looked to be in a strategy to have the Russian wear himself down. However, in the 3rd round that strategy fell apart when Kovalev nailed Cleverly with a right hand that sent Cleverly staggering backwards. Kovalev then dropped Cleverly with a chopping right hand to the head.
Cleverly tried to clinch his way out of the round, but Kovalev caught him with a scorching right hand moments later that sent Cleverly down. Cleverly got up in disgust, and he continued fighting but he was in serious trouble seconds before the round ended.
The referee appeared to be stopping the fight, because he had both arms in the air showing that he was stopping the bout. However, the bell sounded at the a second later, and the referee let Cleverly go back to his corner. In the 4th round, Kovalev hit a shaky looking Cleverly at will with right hands until Cleverly hit the canvas again from a right hand. This time the referee stopped the fight.
Cleverly didn’t have many options in this fight. He was fighting defensively but he was still getting dominated. If the idea was to wait Kovalev out until he faded, it wasn’t going to work because the Russian was landing way too big power shots, and Cleverly wasn’t going to be able to last long enough to the point where Kovalev would get tired of punching him in the head. This game plan was faulty if that’s what this was. Cleverly would have been better off going right at Kovalev and unloading everything but the kitchen sink on him in the 1st round to make the fight interesting.
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