"Nathan Cleverly's fight with Antonio Brancalion for the vacant European light-heavyweight title in Italy on Friday, 29 January, has been postponed. The 22-year-old undefeated British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight champion from Cefn Fforest hopes to hear the new arrangements within the next week. It is possible that the bout will be moved from Rovigo to the UK. Cleverly also has his eyes on a world title bid and is up to third in the IBF light-heavyweight rankings. The numbers one and two rankings are vacant, meaning that the Welshman could soon be in the position of mandatory challenger to champion Tavoris Cloud. Cleverly is bidding to become just the seventh Welshman to hold the British, Commonwealth and European crowns. f he achieves that aim, he would follow Jim Driscoll, Freddie Welsh, Eddie Thomas, Dai Dower, Johnny Owen and Colin Jones. Of those only Welsh went on to claim a world title, something Cleverly hopes to achieve in 2010 after he completes his maths degree at Cardiff University. Only six other Welshmen have held the European crown, Percy Jones, Jimmy Wilde, Dick Richardson, Howard Winstone, Steve Robinson and Jason Cook. Cleverly, who is promoted by Frank Warren, had hoped to go for the European belt on the undercard of Amir Khan v Dmitriy Salita in Newcastle on 5 December. But the purse bid for the clash with ex-holder Brancalion was won by the Italian's promoters, OPI 2000. It looked like the fight would be taken to Brancalion's home town of Rovigo, but the date and venue are now unclear. Brancalion has 32 wins (eight by knock-out), seven defeats and two draws from a 13-year career. His only stoppage loss was against Germany's Juergen Braehmer in the 12th round of his last fight in June. Brancalion lost his European title in that fight, Braehmer then vacating the belt as he awaits a shot at the WBO world crown. Brancalion lost to former Joe Calzaghe victim Mario Veit back in 2003. Cleverly won the Commonwealth crown in Liverpool last year and has had title fights in Widnes, Swindon and London. He then added the British title to his Commonwealth crown with a thrilling seven-round win over Danny McIntosh at the York Hall in July, defending it against Courtney Fry at the same venue earlier this month. That took his record to 18 victories, with eight knock-outs, in as many fights, the last five ending in impressive stoppages that have convinced the likes of Barry McGuigan that the Welshman can reach the top. "My ultimate aim is to win a world title, but I've always wanted to go the traditional route of winning British, Commonwealth and European titles before I get there," said Cleverly. "A lot of British fighters avoid this route because it is difficult. "You have to win every domestic belt along the way and you're beating every top-ranked domestic fighter, which is a tough call. "I'm doing it the hard way and I'm getting a lot more respect for that." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8448781.stm Would love to see him back in Wales.
If orgs like the IBF keep promoting Cleverly, up their rankings he should be smart like Povetkin and admit he just isn't ready yet and get another year or two's development. He's very good, though i doubt he'll ever be in the top two or three in the world. but with some more fine-tuning, experience, work on his dig he would have a chance in a couple of years. he'll win this bout, though.
Nathan has the potential to be very good. He should not be thinking about taking on someone like Cloud for another 2-3 years at least. I am sure Frank Warren will make sure he isn't rushed.
