By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO’s) makes his cruiserweight debut on May 17th against Sean Corbin (17-4, 12 KO’s) at the Motorpoint Arena, in Wales, UK. However, Cleverly is overlooking that fight towards a big money rematch that his promoter Eddie Hearn is going to be setting up for him against Tony Bellew (21-2-1, 13 KO’s) in a fight that will likely take place this year.
Hearn wants to make the rematch between Bellew and Cleverly as soon as possible, likely due to the high probability that both fighters will soon be suffering losses in the cruiserweight division. Bellew barely won his first fight at the new weight against Valery Brudov last March, and now it’s Cleverly’s turn against Corbin.
“The public loves a dust up, and it [Cleverly vs. Bellew] catches the public’s imagination, especially when there’s a rivalry which there is,” Cleverly said to Sky Ringside. “I think it’s a good sell. The first fight was good. The second fight will be just as good. Going from light heavyweight to cruiserweight is a big jump.”
Cleverly beat Bellew by a 12 round majority decision in 2011 by outworking Bellew in the last part of the fight when Bellew ran out of gas. Both of their career’s have sunk recently after years of careful matchmaking. They both fell apart when they went up against A level fighters in Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev. Bellew was destroyed by Stevenson in a 6th round TKO last November, whereas Cleverly was obliterated in 4 rounds by Kovalev last August.
Cleverly and Bellew thought they were good enough to beat these fighters, but they found out the hard way that they didn’t possess the talent to compete against these two talents. Instead of sticking it out in the 175lb division, Cleverly and Bellew both moved up to cruiserweight, thinking that the move will answer all of their problems. We’re going to find out sooner or later whether the cruiserweight division will be a new beginning or will it be the end game for both. My guess is that their fight against each other will be as good as it gets for Cleverly and Bellew, and once that fight is over, they’ll struggle once they start facing the talent in the division.
In looking at Cleverly hit the mitts now that he’s bulked up, I don’t see him as being anymore powerful than he was when he was at 175. Cleverly’s put on weight, to be sure, but the power just isn’t there. Cleverly might want to hit the weights to try and gain some badly needed strength, because he’s not going to do well at all in the cruiserweight division unless he finds some power.
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