British domestic clashes: ratings and predictions

cleverly333By Gav Duthie: There has been a domestic backlash in the UK to the decision to make the rematch between Nathan Cleverly and Tony Bellew a PPV event. This is the first Sky Sports pay event since Froch v Groves 2 last year but the success in this case looks to be well behind the former.

This article rates the three big domestic clashes we have before the end of the month, one on Sky and the other two on subscription only channel Box Nation. My 4 criteria for what made Froch-Groves 2 a successful PPV event are high fan popularity, world level impact, big grudge match and a good spectacle fight rating. I will rate the three upcoming bouts using the same criteria.

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Cleverly wants to take judges out of Bellew rematch

cleverly55By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14 KOs) wants to make spectators out of the judges this Saturday night in his rematch against Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14 KOs) on November 22nd at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

Cleverly knows what he’s up against in going to Bellew’s neck of the woods in Liverpool to fight in front of his fans. If Cleverly doesn’t take the judges out of this fight, then the chances are high that we could see Cleverly finding himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision loss.

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Calzaghe: Cleverly beats Bellew

cleverly6777By Scott Gilfoid: Joe Calzaghe sees Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14 KOs) tasting defeat for a second time when he faces former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14 KOs) on November 22nd at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, UK.

Calzaghe thinks the Bellew-Cleverly 2 fight will ultimately come down to Cleverly’s superior hand speed and conditioning. Like their first fight in 2011, Calzaghe sees the two fighters fighting each other to a standstill in the first half of the fight. But once the bout goes into the second half, Calzaghe thinks Cleverly will take over and wear Bellew out with his superior conditioning.

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Cleverly: Bellew is too fat and slow to beat me

bellewBy Scott Gilfoid: #6 WBO, #9 WBA, #10 IBF, #15 WBC Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14 KOs) feels he’ll have little problem in beating former WBC Silver light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14 KOs) next month in their fight in Bellew’s hometown on 11/22 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

The way Cleverly sees it, Bellew is simply too flabby and too much of a plodder now that he’s fighting in the cruiserweight division for him to give him any problems. Cleverly beat Bellew three years ago by a 12 round majority decision in 2011 when Bellew was slender and not carrying visible fat around his waistline, but now that he’s moved up to the cruiserweight division, much of the weight that Bellew has put on is fat instead of muscle.

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Hearn says Bellew and Cleverly both will get world title fights

bellew1By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says that the November 22nd rematch between former WBO 175 belt holder Nathan Cleverly and Tony Bellew will be an official world title eliminator for one of the cruiserweight belts.

Hearn isn’t saying which title it’ll be an eliminator for but he thinks that it’ll be a WBO cruiserweight title eliminator so that the winner will face Marco Huck. That in itself is pretty surprising because it means that the winner of the Bellew-Cleverly 2 fight will leap frog over the higher ranked contenders by the WBO.

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Bellew vs. Cleverly 2 on PPV on 11/22

bellew5By Scott Gilfoid: In a surprising move, Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn has made the November 22nd rematch between contenders Tony Bellew and Nathan Cleverly a pay-per-view match on Sky Box office from the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

If you look at the fighters and the fact that neither of them are champions, it seems rather odd that this is a PPV fight. I mean, neither of these guys has done anything since they were sparked out last year by Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev.

Bellew and Cleverly have both moved up to cruiserweight and won a handful of fights, but they’ve done it against less than high quality opposition.

Neither of them has tested themselves against the top 5 contenders at cruiserweight. Heck, they haven’t even tested themselves against a good top 10 guy like Thabisio Mchunu. Asking boxing fans to pay to see two guys that were both exposed not too long ago seems baffling to me.

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Cleverly: This time I’m knocking Bellew out in front of his own fans

cleverly3By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (29-1, 14 KOs) is hoping to shut Tony Bellew’s yap for the final time in front of Bellew’s own Liverpool fans on November 22nd in their unneeded rematch at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

Cleverly says he whipped Bellew once in front of his Liverpool fans in their previous fight in October 2011 in beating him by a 12 round decision, but this time he wants to knock him out in front of his loud fans so that he can close the book on the rivalry.

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Bellew and Cleverly face each other on November 22nd

bellew5By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn has setup a rematch between former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (28-1, 14 KOs) and #5 WBC, #5 WBO, #11 IBF Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14 KOs) will battle it out on November 22nd at the ExCel Arena in Liverpool, UK.

They already fought each other in 2011 in a fight that Cleverly won, but it was close enough to make an argument that there should be a rematch.

The whole point in the rematch obviously is the money that the two fighters can make because both of their careers have taken a hit with them losing to more talented fighters in Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev.

Hearn is pushing to get the winner of the Bellew-Cleverly 2 fight to face WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck, and it’s going to be interesting to see if he can pull that trick off.

If so, that means that the winner of that fight will be skipping over Krzysztof Glowacki, Vikapita Meroro, Nuri Seferi and Grigory Drozd. The winner of the Bellew-Cleverly fight could also be potentially getting a shot ahead of Thabiso Mchunu, who many boxing fans feel is the best contender in the entire division bar none.

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Bellew-Cleverly 2 on 11/22 from Liverpool

Nathan Cleverly and Tony Bellew will clash in a blockbuster rematch at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, live on Sky Sports.

The November date for the hotly anticipated bout will be revealed ahead of a press conference next Wednesday in Liverpool, with tickets on sale from midday on Tuesday for Matchroom Boxing Fight Pass members and then on general sale the following day at midday from the Echo Arena.

Cleverly and Bellew first met in Merseyside in October 2011 where the Welshman successfully defended his WBO World Light Heavyweight title and with the pair finally meeting again but at Cruiserweight, the Welshman believes he’ll take a massive step to becoming a two-weight World champion with another win over Bellew.

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