This is a really good fight you know. He would bring something to bout and be Clev's first world class test. Diaconu is no great shakes but he has the ability to make Clev work and learn.
Diaconu is a good style for Cleverly to get hit and realise he needs to improve his defence. He should have already realised that.
Diaconu is made for Clev really. Poor work-rate, fights in sputs, i.e. easy to take advantage of. Not highly skilled, he can't really offset work-rate with skill. He just has a dig and a good chin, which is dangerous in itself when Cleverly is so open. But I'd back him to come through this with flying colours.
Diaconu has been declawed by his wars with Pascal, and is nowhere near as dangerous as he was back when he was undefeated. Even in the rematch he had lost some of his ferocious luster, failing to gain the upper hand against a one-armed fighter. Then he went life and death with a spent-up Sheika, and this past weekend looked totally ineffectual plodding after Chad Dawson with barely any offensive urgency. Bellew is certainly the more aggressive and explosive right now, and I'm not entirely sure his power is far behind what Diaconu's was even in the shark's prime. In other words, both Diaconu and Bellew have the adagial puncher's chance...but Diaconu's is much smaller.