By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Peter Fury thinks Nathan Cleverly can get a decision win this Saturday night against WBA light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer in their fight in Germany. Peter says that Tyson Fury proved that you can beat a fighter in Germany with his win over Wladimir Klitschko last November in Dusseldorf.
Peter thinks that Cleverly (29-3, 15 KOs) should go into Saturday’s fight against Braehmer looking to out-box him rather than looking for a KO. Cleverly can’t punch, so it’s a dumb idea for him to be looking to knockout Brahmer (48-2, 35 KOs), because it’s probably not going to happen. The only guys that Cleverly has been able to knockout during his career were weak opponents and not the quality guys.
“I don’t think Cleverly has to stop him,” said Peter to skysports.com. “Everybody is hell-bent on stoppages in Germany but Tyson disproved that. The Germans like clean shots and the better man is the better man.”
Yeah, I agree with Peter. You don’t need to get knockouts in Germany in order to get victories. We’ve seen some controversial fights over the years in that country unfortunately, but we’ve also seen a number of controversial decisions in the UK. I don’t think it matters which country a fight takes place. There’s always going to be controversial decisions, and the visiting fighter seems to be the one that is on the short end of the stick. But Cleverly could make things easy for Braehmer to beat him if he chooses to plod fward and slug all night long.
Braehmer does well against fighters that come straight at him looking to slug. Of course, it would be a different story if Braehmer were facing Artur Beterbiev, Sergey Kovalev of Adonis Stevenson. Those guys could come straight forward and likely knock the 37-year-old Braehmer into the stratosphere with their power shots, because they can punch with either hand.
Braehmer has never had to fight anyone with power during his career other than Enzo Maccarinelli, and he’s never fought anyone that you can call a good fighter in my opinion. Peter disagrees. He thinks that Braehmer HAS fought good fighters, but I wonder if he’s actually looked closely at the fighters on his resume. The last time I checked, Braehmer has never fought Kovalev, Beterbiev, Jean Pascal, Stevenson, Joe Smith Jr., Eleider Alvarez, Andrzej Fonfara, Andre Ward, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Isaac Chilemba, Thomas Williams Jr. or even Chad Dawson [prime version], and Antonio Tarver [when he was in his [prime].
How does Braehmer go through 17 years as a pro without fighting any of those guys? Does anyone know?
“Braehmer is no mug. He belongs where he is and hasn’t just fought bums like some people claim he has. I’ve seen his boxing and he’s highly skilled. He’s an excellent technician and a nightmare for anyone in the world,” said Peter.
I wouldn’t call the guys that Braehmer has beaten “bums,” but I wouldn’t call them good fighters. To me, a good fighter is guys like Kovalev, Ward, Gvozdyk, Beterbiev, Stevenson, Fonfara, Alvarez, Pascal and Joe Smith Jr. The guys that Braehmer has been fighting, I see as mediocre. They’re not bums. They’re just mediocre.
“Cleverly should go in there and box because this is a boxing match. It’s a skill. That’s what he needs to do rather than loading up against a very slick operator in offsetting opponents,” said Peter.
Cleverly kind of has to box Braehmer. Nathan will have no chance of winning the fight if he tries to initially slug with Braehmer. However, if things don’t work out after six rounds of Nathan using his boxing skills to beat Braehmer, then by all means I think he should go with a Plan-B strategy of trying to slug with him. Braehmer has looked vulnerable in the past when he’s pressured.
Cleverly can’t let the southpaw Braehmer bounce around all night long throwing jabs an straight left hands from the outside. If Cleverly starts getting the worst of it on the outside, then he’s going to need to stay close to Braehmer and look to beat him with high volume punching. Braehmer isn’t young. He’s not going to be able to keep up with Cleverly if he starts throwing 100 punches per round.