Bellew nearly KO'd

I think that is a good point, look at what Kovalev has done to quite a few fighters with a single punch and Cleverly was stopped on his feet taking big shots.

Also what I think is overlooked is Cleverly was trying to fight his way out of a serious situation, it turned out to be a bad decision but you can't question his bottle or heart in my opinion.

By contrast, watch Stevenson Vs Bellew, after all the "I'm prepared to die in the ring", "Stevenson is a midget" comments the performance was embarrassing in my opinion.

 

Yep.

I'm a big fan of Bellew, but his mouth does write checks that his fists can't cash at times...

 

Cleverly doesn't hit hard! Bellew didn't get badly hurt when he faced him in the last, anyone can KO anyone so both need to be on their game and have their concentration throughout. Say what you like about Bellews chin but he always gets back up and fights on, they both got KO'd by the two biggest punchers in the division but when Clev got put down he didn't recover in 2 rounds, so if Bellew hurts him he will stay hurt.

 

In all fairness Brudov has a 60% KO ratio so he can bang a bit but Bellew for me would have been stopped if not protected by the ref.

 

What are you talking about? Cleverly got put over 3 times in the 3rd and got up every time. Bellew ran against Stevenson and as soon as he got hit with a big shot that was it.