What this forum opinion on him? I quite liked him but after his first loss he didn't seem to care anymore (showboating in the second fight v Bellew) His rivalry with Bellew seemed to be 1 sided as well! you never really hear or see of him now..
He was getting called the 2nd coming of Calzaghe at one point, there was even talk of him fighting froch at one point but he moved up to light heavy which seemed a better place for him. Did well at British level and then got some great wins against Murat, mohammedi who are still relevant and even beat bellew. He fought Kovalev the wrong way and tried trading with him, big mistake and also fighting bellew again but at cruiser was not good.
Made a few bob and was more interested his education. Wasnt world class but decent fighter when you see how well Bellew done afterwards
He was actually quite good and one of the best of the then relatively weak 175 division until the new generation arrived lead by Kovalev. The issue was what we still see from many British fighters today. Fight relatively weak opposition in order to get a WBO shot. Whenever possible a vacant one against sub-par opposition and then defend it against scrubs. Cleverly though went form that sub-par opposition towards Kovalev (basically expecting him to be massively overrated) and paid the price for that huge step up in competition, no matter what Carry O'Corner did to try and save him. I think he could have done pretty well for himself if he still had some drive, but he had chosen to cash out with a Bellew rematch at 200. I had their first encounter a draw by the way, and thought he was pulling a fast one everytime a rematch came up until it actually happened. He said something like "I clearly beat him and moved on from that level now, not in my league" or something simular, which obviously was bullshirt of course.
Decent fighter, as other have said, but not elite. For me, a large part of his problem was his mindset. Early in his career he actually boxed, and he looked pretty good. However, as he reached fringe world level he seemed to enjoy proving his toughness. This led to him becoming far too predictable and just standing in front of his opponent with a high guard. He was essentially a Gallagher fighter without being trained by Joe. He seems to be having a few troubles of late, as well. It's never nice to see that.
I don't think there was a right way for him to fight Kovalev, maybe on the backfoot he would have lasted quite a while longer but there was no path to victory for him in there.
People like to knock him but at the end of the day the fella won British, Commonwealth, European and World Titles so fair play to him! I could be completely wrong here but I did hear he'd gone off the rails a little since retiring from the sport. However I met him after he beat Krasniqi on points (the fight before Kovalev) and he came across as a sound bloke. His dad, Vince is it? He seemed a bit of an odd guy though... Talking of Kovalev….. that has to be one of, if not the worst choice of matchmaking for a VOLUNTARY title defence in British boxing history lol
Shocking matchmaking especially with his amateur pedigree also. Very little was known about Kovalev at the time
I remember one or two posters on here claiming Kovalev was massively overrated at that time, but basically the entire forum was saying Kovalev was the real deal so I’m not sure what the matchmakers were thinking when they made that fight.
Enzo Mac mentioned in his Boxing Life Stories that they had a massive falling out, though he did accept his handshake at Enzo Calzaghe's funeral. He also mentioned that Clev is suffering from mental problems these days.
Really? Thats interesting? What did he mean by mental problems I wonder. Always thought he was a decent fighter to be honest but he didn't use his attributes all that well. Remember him absolutely beating the tar out of Karo Murat who is a decent tuff fighter, good wins over Bellew and Krasniqi amongst others but once he moved up in weight he just looked all wrong like his heart wasn't in it. Only 32 and even in his losses gave a good account of himself.
Have a look at his old Twitter posts. He went completely off the rails on social media at least after his last fight and made a series of bizarre posts. Remember Bellew claimed he attends AA meetings as well so I’m sure there is some credence to any claims that he has issues. Hope he’s ok, I liked him as a boxer and will never forget his display against Fonfara.
Kovalev was a voluntary defence, but the winner got a HBO contract. So it was high risk, but high reward. It wasn't a cherry pick that went wrong... it was a calculated gamble.
