By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s putting the finishing touches on rematch between former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14 KOs) and former WBC Silver 175 pound title holder Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14 KOs) for a date and a venue still to be determined.
The original date Hearn was looking at was for December 6th in Sheffield on the same card as IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s first title defense. However, with Brook out of commission after being stabbed recently while on vacation in Spain, Hearn is looking for a new date and location for the Cleverly-Bellew fight.
“We are almost there,” said Hearn via skysports.com. “Having been originally set for December 6, we are now finalizing a new date and venue and I hope to have the deal tied up this week.”
You’d have to figure that the fight need to take place in December because the last thing Hearn needs is to have Bellew and Cleverly sitting out of the ring for too long of a time and getting rusty. The date that is being talked about is November 29th at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. With Bellew being the bigger draw of the two, having the fight staged in Liverpool is predictable.
Hearn is hoping that the winner of the Bellew-Cleverly 2 fight will then be able to get a title shot against one of the cruiserweight champions. It looks like WBO champion Marco Huck is the one that Hearn will look to match Cleverly or Bellew against.
I can’t say I agree with that decision because Huck is considered by many boxing fans to be the best fighter in the cruiserweight division right now. Putting Bellew or Cleverly in the ring with him might not be a good thing for either of them, given that they’ve both been recently knocked out.
“This is a wonderful fight – two great fighters with a genuine rivalry that will keep fans on their toes in and outside the ring. I can’t wait for this fight, and of course the build-up,” Hearn said.
I’m not sure that I would call the Bellew-Cleverly 2 fight a great a “wonderful fight,” as Hearn calls it. I see it as a domestic level scrap between two fringe level world contenders.
I know they’re ranked high by the World Boxing Organization with Bellew at #5 WBO and Cleverly #6 WBO, but I don’t see either of them as being as good as their rating. I have these cruiserweights ranked above them: Rakhim Chakhkiev, Ola Afolabi, Thabiso Mchunu, Grigory Drozd, BJ Flores, Firat Arslan, Ilunga Makabu, Krzysztof Glowacki, Juan Carlos Gomez and Chad Dawson.
Cleverly defeated Bellew by a 12 round majority decision in their previous fight in 2011. Both guys did well afterwards until they were stoppage in 2013 by Adonis Stevenson in the case of Bellew and Sergey Kovalev in the case of Cleverly. What’s interesting is that both Cleverly and Bellew chose to move up in weight to cruiserweight after their knockout losses. Both fighters have picked up two wins a piece against weak opposition to get themselves ready for their rematch.
It looks like Hearn may have the winner of the Cleverly-Bellew 2 fight go straight in for a world title shot off of their fight instead of continuing to move upwards against the higher ranked, more talented cruiserweights. That’s how it should be done, because the winner of the Bellew-Cleverly 2 fight won’t be ready to fight the likes of Huck in my view. If Hearn throws Cleverly or Bellew in the ring with Huck straightaway in their next fight, I see it as ending in disaster for them. Huck is just too good right now, and Bellew and Cleverly still too flawed.
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