Cleverly vs. Murat & Lebedev vs. Alexeev, WBO eliminators; purse bid on Monday 5/10!!

BThese probably won't wind up on American TV, but it's still big news and people should pay attention to these matches and try to find a way to watch them. The winners will emerge as very legitimate top contenders at 175 (Cleverly-Murat) and 200 (Lebedev-Alexeev) respectively.

The quartet (who are collectively 80-1-0) are experienced against world-level opposition but will face their stiffest tests to date in one another.

Nathan Cleverly is a free-swinging action fighter who's beaten some good domestic stock in the UK (Oakey, Fry, Quigley, Boyle and McIntosh) and stopped Antonio Brancalion. He is not a master boxer but thanks to his style and recently emergent power (similar to the late blooming pop of Hasegawa, but not as dangerous p4p) some of the Welsh/British claim him as their heir apparent to Calzaghe at LHW despite vastly different styles. He will have over five inches on Murat but has been poor at fighting tall, particularly against Boyle.

Karo Murat posted good wins at super middleweight over Cristian Sanavia (twice) and Gabriel Campillo. Against Cleverly, he'll be looking at a significant disadvantage in height but with Campillo he showed ability to cut a much taller man down with two-handed body attacks from out of a turtle-shell. He also keeps his head down and his hands moving on the inside, and so may be able to discourage some of the ugliness that Cleverly likes to introduce.

To the victor go the spoils - Juergen Braehmer is the sitting WBO light heavyweight champion. Either challenger would make it exciting, but most probably get knocked out by the heavy handed German. He was the first to KO Brancalion and did so far more convincingly and in four fewer rounds than Cleverly, dropping the tough Italian literally once every twenty seconds from the opening bell before the merciful referee intervention.

Denis Lebedev is viewed by most who've seen him as one of the hardest punchers in the game today, leaving victims such as Eliseo Castillo, Enzo Maccarinelli, and Ali Ismailov in his recent wake. He's the kind of monster slugger who can make you **** blood, but tall fellow southpaw Alexeev will be a step up in class.

Alexander Alexeev had been building up his own reputation for knocking suckas out, culminating with a destruction of Rob Calloway before running into a brick wall in Victor Ramirez, against whom he quit. Since then he's been hot and cold...allowing Contender alum Max Alexander to hang around for ten rounds (and even win a few)...but then blew out the Aussie leftie Daniel Ammann, a good but featherfisted boxer.

Whoever walks through the dust of that slugfest has the privilege of dancing with none other than Marco Huck in what could shape up to be a FOTY candidate either way.

- News courtesy of the Scene. Hype courtesy of IB.

 

Schooled by Campillo? Huge tits? I don't know which is the bigger hyperbole.

He won't be headhunting against Cleverly, and he can defend well against straight punches down the middle until he's within range to bang the body.

Alexeev is skilled, but bodhi's right - the mental toughness doesn't seem to be there. Mental toughness and killer instinct do not seem to be much of an issue at all with Lebedev even if he isn't much of a cute boxer - and the boy can hit.

 

Universum (Alexeev's promoter) won the bid against Lebdev. They will announce the time and place for the fight to determine Marco Huck's mandatory challenger in the next couple of days.

Cleverly vs. Murat is supposed to happen in Wales in September, with Maccarinelli on the undercard against Alexander Frenkel.