Cleverly ain't nothing special and he's always been open. I can't see him fighting with his hands down for a couple of years and then suddenly keeping a tight defense against top opposition. I don't know why people are only just realising this after the Kuz fight? He's always been open to getting caught and always will be.
:rofl Cleverly was hurt. He was trying to act macho like he wasn't, but it was obvious his legs weren't under him after getting tagged by Kuziemski. Outfought the Pole? He was up by one round after three and was looking anything but dominant. Bloodied his face bigtime? He had a busted nose (not uncommon or really a big deal with how it looked) and a paper cut caused a horse **** stoppage, Cleverly was protected. Cleverly wasn't hurting Kuziemski, you have remarkably rose tinted glasses with how you see this fighter and that fight.
If Cleverly aint got much then nor has Dawson or Cloud. Cleverlys stamina and workrate and pressure would give them (Dawson more) a nightmare. Cleverly has a good jab(when he uses it) and straight right and has a good inside game i.e body shots uppercuts hooks, so far Cleverlys chin has held up. Cleverly does need to improve his defence but every fighter has a weakness. Too many cling to a fighters weakness and dont appreciate their strengths. As i put i`m sure he`ll show more respect when its more deserved.
And you also have dagger clothes over your glasses which stain your view :happy Cleverly out fought the pole every rd the only rd you could give the pole was rd 3. You believe what you like about the stoppage if it helps degrade a boxer, Cleverly wasnt happy about it either nor were the fans and myself too but no way was the pole gonna last more than another 3 rds.
Yes, he does those things well and his stamina/workrate is top notch. But I don't see that boxer side of him or a plan-b, I couldn't see Cleverly keeping a tight defense while popping out that jab to setup combinations for 12 rounds. I think if he ever fought Cloud you'd see the difference. Great win over Murat, but I'd like to see him in with someone who can box and is durable.
Every round but the third? There were three rounds, that's not exactly saying much especially given how game Kuziemski was. By the way, he's not "the Pole", he has a name. Cleverly celebrated like he just legitimately won the world title in a huge fight, he should've been more like how Gavin looked after his win: glad to win but upset how it came. Kuziemski hadn't really been hurt yet and was taking the fight to Cleverly, there's no legit reason other than nonsensical bias to think Cleverly was just going to suddenly turn it on and stop Kuziemski. It took Braehmer eleven rounds and his a bigger puncher.
For those saying Cleverly was not really hurt - I've only seen it live and haven't had occasion to look at a replay (it seems all that has made it to Youtube is the part of the 4th where it gets stopped). If it surfaces, we can certainly take another look and determine just how much trouble he was in. It appeared at the time that the Polak had him all shook up. Regardless of how dire his situation, the fact is that he got hit full-on enough to seriously command his attention and affect his body language for a few moments. That openness is what many feel will be his undoing when he elects to trade with a bigger puncher...since he hasn't much bothered with refining any alternate skillset like boxing tall behind a jab.
man this division would be so dope if it was like back in the day and there was no SMW class. some epic fights/talent pool
Imagine the super six recast with Light Heavyweights in such a scenario? :think The draw would have been more like: Andre Ward Tavoris Cloud Mikkel Kessler Jean Pascal Carl Froch Chad Dawson No Taylor and no Abraham coming all the way up from MW. :nono And **** Dirrell, just because. :yep BHop - being the crafty wizened one in and out of the ring - probably would have wanted to sit it out and wait for the winner to make beaucoup $$. There's no reason to have the negotiations with Bute work out in this imagined alternate universe if they didn't in this one. Other than that, those six are pretty reflective of how the top would look in a combined 175 division that encompassed our actual 168 division. Those match-ups! :shock:
Indeed. Although honestly i'd rather see Dirrell than Kessler(sorry, guy is nordic boxing ambien to me a lot of the time). Hell maybe one day when people finally stop giving a **** about weight classes period we could have a super middle light catchweight tournament at 171?
Do you really think Dirrell could even be competitive in those heavier (in multiple senses of the word) match-ups, though? I could see Pascal and Cloud knocking him out cold, and Dawson giving him a boxing lesson. Skill + talent > talent alone...even if it's greater talent.
Yes he was and it was against a guy with only 5 KO's who took the fight on 3 days notice. If he has to fight Erdei he's getting his ass kicked. Cloud has looked unimpressive in his fight vs Johnson and Zuniga and although i think he would have alot more success against Dawson due to his inside fighting than Diaconu did i really think Diaconu would beat Cloud. I believ Campillo, Uzelkov, and Shumenov are alot better than most think. Uzelkov looked horrible vs Shumenov and had several things working against him including his entire corner not being allowed in the US and having to lose several lbs due to the scale he was given being inaccurate. He's alot better than he showed in that fight. Shumenov after the Campillo rematch stopped all involvment in running KZ promotions with his brother to devote all his time to boxing and showed alot of improvements in the Uzelkov fight. Particularly lateral movement and not backing up in straight lines. He also chose his punches better rather than throwing everything full power. Campillo is very big (Shumenov is 6'2 and Campillo was clearly taller) and arguably has as good if not a better defense than Dawson. I think Cloud and Dawson would have a hell of a time with him. I also think Shumenov would give Dawson hell as a big, hard punching pressure fighter. When Adamek finally abandoned his ******ed Mcgirt approach of trying to outbox Dawson and fought in his normal pressure style in rds 10-12 he had alot more success. Bute and Ward will in all likelyhood move up between 2012-2013 and perhaps Froch and Dirrell at some point too. these guys along with Syllakh should make things very interesting. Erdei is still a player if he gets the fights.