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A Closer Look at Nathan Cleverly

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

The guy has fought in a world title fight eight times, has won the WBO and WBA “regular” version of his weight division, been Commonwealth, British and European champion and has a degree in mathematics. On Saturday night/Sunday evening he is going to try and do something that no British boxer has manged – beat Badou Jack 21-1-2, 12 KO’s.

Born and bred in Wales near the Cefn Forest, this is a young man who is very close to his roots and will be in Las Vegas without a big retinue and without a massive reputation BUT he has the heart of a lion and the skillset of a world champion – it is Nathan Cleverly, 30-3, 16 KO’s.

His professional journey started in Scotland, 12 years ago when he fought in Edinburgh against Ernie Smith and begun a voyage that led to 6 wins in his first year. He then started to get attention when he went in the ring with an undefeated Tony Quigley and handed Quigley the first defeat of his career. This was on a Joe Calzaghe undercard – another Welsh boxer and world champion but one with a much bigger reputation.

Cleverly became a feature on the undercard of Calzaghe fights and as he takes the Las Vegas ring this coming weekend he shall not be having a first time experience. In 2008, Cleverly was there to support Calzaghe’s fight against Bernard Hopkins with an 8 round points win over Antonio Baker.

Cleverly had been trained by Joe’s father Enzo Calzaghe for the first 6 years of his career before he split to take up with his dad’s gym. It was under that corner team he got his first belt – the Commonwealth title in a points win against Tony Oakey in 2008.

At York Hall, just a year later Cleverly then got his hands on and waist round the British title with a 7th round stoppage against Danny McIntosh. With his 2010 win against Antonio Brancalion for the vacant European title out the way Cleverly then managed to find himself, at the tail end of 2010, in an eliminator for the WBO title held by Jurgen Braehmar.

Tough opponent Karo Murat was dispensed by him and the time was right for a Cleverly assault on the world stage.

At this time, the politics of boxing made the puddle rather cloudy for our Welsh Wizard. Cleverly next went in against an awkward Nadjib Mohammedi and won the interim WBO title as Braehmar was fighting to stay out of jail and the WBO allowed him to undertake that fight rather than one in the ring so Cleverly picked up the interim title.

The battle with Braehmar was then set but Braehmar was not to face him. Citing an eye injury, Braehmar pulled out of the fight.

Step in… a certain Mr Tony Bellew…

There was increasing clamour for a fight between Bellew and Cleverly due to bad blood being spilled regularly between them. Bellew accepted the fight at very short notice, turned the press conference into a major spat and then failed to make the weight. Bellew, at the time the Commonwealth champion, lost his chance and another replacement was found – Aleksy Kuziemski. Cleverly now announced as the full champion due to Braehmar’s pulling out, got a stoppage win to be declared the full defending champion.

The stage was set for Cleverly/Bellew I and Cleverly’s very first defence of his WBO title. It was an absolute cracker and a majority points win for Cleverly. There was to be a rematch in 2014 but at cruiserweight and not light heavyweight which Bellew won in a split decision.

Before that rematch Cleverly was to show just how good he was with successful defenses that were, if we are to be fair, well picked.

In 2013, he was to enter the ring against Sergey Kovalev and leave without his belt. By the 3rd round Kovalev was more than a match for Cleverly who was stopped in the 4th and it hurt badly.

It clearly knocked some sense out of him as he went up in weight to fight three times at cruiserweight, his last one against Tony Bellew which showed he was not a genuine cruiser an needed to go back down to light heavy. And so, he did.

In 2016, he finally got that fight with Jurgen Braehmar which was for the WBA regular title. Fighting in Germany, against a German meant we all feared that Cleverly would be done by the judges – he didn’t need them. Braehmar refused to come out for the 6th round suffering from a dislocated elbow. Cleverly was a two times world champion.

Next up – a first defense.

The fight with Jack has needed to be sanctioned by the WBA as there is a mandatory challenger waiting. The WBA want the mandatory and regular champion to fight to decide who goes in to face their other champion – Andre Ward. They want to unify their absurd two champion nonsense.

A win against Jack would see Cleverly on the way towards the man who beat Kovalev not once but twice. On Saturday night/Sunday morning his position as a light heavyweight champion of note is at stake. As the world will watch and talk of the May/Mc result, there are some of us who shall be very much looking forward to seeing if the real world title boxing is interesting and whether the Welsh celebrate whilst the Irish weep.

Actually, no matter what the results both shall down a shandy, and as a fellow Celt I am rooting for the true boxers to win in both fights – work that one out if ye will…

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