Cleverly: Bellew still hasn’t gotten over his previous loss to me

By Boxing News - 03/31/2014 - Comments

cleverly3By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly feels that he really doesn’t need to give Tony Bellew a rematch after having beaten him several years ago by a 12 round majority decision while Cleverly was still holding the WBO 175lb title. Cleverly is kind of conflicted about giving Bellew a rematch. On one hand he feels like he doesn’t need to face him again given that he beat him already, but on the other hand he says he will likely fight him again.

Cleverly’s new promoter Eddie Hearn wants him to fight Bellew, because it’s a fight that he can easily make due to him promoting Bellew as well. It’s a match-up that will make both guys a lot of money right now, and that’s obviously why Hearn wants to put the fight together. What Hearn isn’t saying it that he needs to make the fight right now because either of them get their feet seriously wet in the cruiserweight division and find out just how brutal it can be for these two ex-light heavyweights.

“He [Bellew] still hasn’t gotten over the first defeat, he wants a shot at redemption, and do I give him that chance? I can understand why he hates me, from his point of view, I get it,” Cleverly said to the Southwalesargus. “I really don’t need to give him a chance. I could just walk away with my 1-0 victory and be content. But I’m a fighter and I’m prepared to rematch. I’m looking forward to making it 2-0.”

Cleverly should stop yakking and take the fight with Bellew. He needs to realize that this is going to be a payday fight that he won’t be seeing again after he starts getting whipped on a regular basis against the top rungs of the cruiserweight division. If Cleverly thought he had it bad in getting bounced up and down off the canvas like a yo-yo in his loss to Sergey Kovalev last August, then he’s got another thing coming once he starts facing the best in the cruiserweight division and finds out these guys can all punch just as hard as Kovalev.

Cleverly will likely be reduced to that of a fringe contender once the other top fighters in the cruiserweight division start beating him left and right, and at that point he can forget about big paydays in the UK. After a certain point, Cleverly will end up being an undercard fighter in the UK, and that’s if he doesn’t lose his confidence and retire outright.

Cleverly needs to go on a diet and move back down to the light heavyweight division, which is where he has his only chance of being a legitimate contender. Cleverly has said that it leaves him feeling weakened after he drains down to 175, but it’s much worse for him at cruiserweight because he’s going to be fighting guys that are draining down from the low 220s to fight him. Cleverly will be giving away weight and power to pretty much every good cruiserweight he faces.



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