Weights: Cleverly-Valori, Bellew-Dos Santos

By Boxing News - 07/11/2014 - Comments

cleverly79800--By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (27-1, 13 KOs) and Tony Bellew (21-2-1, 13 KO’s) both weighed on Friday for their respective fights for their card dubbed “Collision Course” on Saturday at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

Cleverly and Bellew will be facing each other later this year in a domestic level scrap, so their promoter Eddie Hearn set them up with what he hopes will be tune-up fights on Saturday. Whether that’ll be the case or not remains to be seen, because neither Cleverly nor Bellew looked good in their initial fights in the cruiserweight division earlier this year.

Cleverly weighed in at 198.7 pounds for his fight against the much shorter Alejandro Emilio Valori (15-4, 11 KO’s). For his part, Valori weighed 199.8. The size difference was apparent when the two of them stood side by side, as Cleverly towered over the shorter, slightly pudgy looking Valori. When the two of them stood for their face off, Cleverly really hammed it up with the glaring at Valori. It was too much.

Even when Valori was walking away, Cleverly was still glaring at him, as if there was bad blood between them. Afterwards, Cleverly strutted off the stage like a proud peacock for having gotten the better of his over-matched opponent. I could understand Cleverly trying to intimidate Valori if the guy was a top 15 contender, but come on, this was was just some 2nd tier level fighter being brought in to give Cleverly a tune-up.

It was hardly necessary for Cleverly to go overboard at the face off, as he’s not fighting someone that had a real chance of beating him on Saturday. I mean, it’s unfortunate that Eddie Hearn isn’t matching Cleverly with a live body like Thabiso Mchunu, because Cleverly has been talking about how he’s going to get a world title shot if he wins this fight against Valori and then beats Bellew later this year. You’d like to see Cleverly actually face a true contender like Mchunu before being given a world title shot, don’t you?

Bellew’s opponent Julio Cesar Dos Santos (26-2, 23 KO’s) weighed in at 197.6. The Bellew-Dos Santos face off was little more than the two guys smiling at each other and talking, but without the glaring that we saw with Cleverly staring holes through his much shorter opponent. The Bellew-Dos Santos fight has the potential of being a real competitive fight, unlike the Cleverly-Valori match-up. Bellew was respectful of Dos Santos and even shook his hand after the weigh-in.

Full weights for the Echo Arena card:

Tony Bellew 198.8 vs. Julio Cesar Dos Santos 197.6
Nathan Cleverly 198.7 vs. Alejandro Emilio Valori 199.8
Anthony Joshua 239 vs. Matt Skelton 239
Callum Smith 167.4 vs. Vladine Biosse 167.3
Anthony Ogogo 161.5 vs. Wayne Reed 161.75
Luke Campbell 135 vs. Craig Woodruff 134.25
Rocky Fielding 167.5 vs. Noe Gonzalez Alcoba 167.8
Stephen Smith 136.6 vs. Pedro Navarrete 133.3
John Quigley 129.75 vs. Ian Bailey 128
Gamal Yafai 124.75 vs. Reynaldo Cajina 124
Tommy Martin 137 vs. Ainsley Seivwright 136.75



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