Cleverly deserves respect

From first hand experience, he comes across as a stand up guy.

I highly rate him as a fighter, has all the tools to make a success of himself.

 

Because he's British. Would much rather see any Brit win than a foreign opponent.

 

Like in the Bellew press conference?

Or his constant goading of Froch?

 

Bellew was the mouthy one in that press conference, can't really blame him.

And everyone right now want's a piece of Froch, he's the one with the name which brings the ££££.

You must know yourself, often talking can help make a big fight happen.. you only have to look at Haye/Wlad, Fury/Haye, Hatton getting on the microphone after the Castillo fight telling the fans that they'd witness more action in 4 rounds than in Mayweathers career which led to there fight etc.

 

:deal

 

There was quite clearly a period during that press conference in which it had calmed down before Nathan decides to call Bellew a twat starting it all up again. He was as much to blame.

Cleverly is using Froch's name to boost his own popularity as his fights and his promoter can't do it for themselves. ****** made it clear Cleverly won't go down to 168 and Hearn has made it clear he won't go up to 175.

End of story?

 

So calling someone a twat, when he was acting a bit of a twat, suddenly means he isn't an alright person? I've been in his company and from what I seen of him, he comes across as a sound guy.

So what if he was using Froch's name for his own publicity? Haye used the Klitschko name to increase awareness about him, there's many examples of that.

Cleverly himself, I genuinely believe he would want the Froch fight. He's been quoted as saying that they put forward an offer to grant Froch his career highest pay day and he was also quoted as saying he was willing to drop down a division to make it happen.

I'd love for the fight to be made, it'd be great for British boxing with two world title holders facing one another. Unfortunately, I highly doubt it'll happen.

 

Indeed. He's had some decent UK fights against good domestic opposition. He's won four decent belts, but he has not faced the most testing of opposition. Murat, Bellew and Krasniqi are still very decent operators. The trouble is that he never faced a world class opponent (star) for that WBO title. When Calzaghe beat Eubank, he beat someone who had a long history of championship fights and was well known by the general public, he had this opponent because Steve Collins retired. This helped to overcome the fact that he fought for the vacant title. Cleverly did not have that "star" opponent for his first big fight. Despite winning the title, Cleverly has not fought a World Champion, past or present. We don't know what's in Nathans head and how he will react to fighting Kovalev. Did he take this fight because he really wanted to prove to himself how good he is, when none of the other champions wanted to know?

The gamble pays off here if Cleverly is in a really good competitive fight and perhaps gets off the canvas to win in sensational style.

Perhaps Cleverly really is the real deal and he has great self belief.

Even if Cleverly loses, there are still other great world title and domestic level fights out there with the likes of Bellew, Enzo Mac etc.

In my mind, this fight really is Nathan's WORLD TITLE opportunity (despite holding the WBO belt for a while), opportunity to shine on the world stage when a lot of people expect him to lose. If he comes through this he is a serious player and not just another WBO champion from Wales.

 

Yet to see Kovalev fight - going to avoid watching any previous fights that may be around on youtube

Sounds like Clev is going to be up against it but I think this will bring out the best in him so looking forward to this one

 

He looks impressive but the way people go on about him on here is ridiculous,he's done ****all besides knock out a few fringe contenders and a former world champion who is more or less a journeyman at this stage in Campillo.

If Kovalev beats Cleverly he deserves the hype but I don't think he will,I've got Cleverly making him look slow and outworking him to a 12 round decision.

 

Decent fighter but needs more A-level / elite fights to improve his rep

 

Cleverly will become undisputed LHW champ and maybe even captue a belt at heavyweight.

 

He could well win the Undisputed title at 175lbs if he beats Kovalev, but I have doubts that he wins a Cruiserweight belt let alone the Heavyweight title.

I reckon Kovalev would put up a decent show at Cruiserweight, trouble is there is a big gap between 175 and 200.

 

I've criticised Cleverly in the past and I'm picking Kovalev to KO him, so if Cleverly proves me wrong then I will give him his dues.

And to be fair Cleverly has already proven me wrong by taking this fight in the first place, so fair play and I'm looking forward to it.

 

Clev sparr's with heavies and I heard he held his own against Chisora. If he beats Krusher , imo he's unstoppable at LHW.