I remember watching nathan cleverly back in the days when calzaghe was topping bills in manchester, cardiff and all around the UK-2006. I wasnt impressed one bit. a tall gangly kid with no power. i couldnt understand why he was even considered a prospect. he's done endless rounds of sparring with joe calzaghe and i can say they have very similar style. In the last 4 years, i couldnt help but notice the improvement cleverly has made. the guy is immensely skilled, has great stamina and workrate ala calzaghe and he has a granite jaw. this man will be hard to beat. to me, he fights like joe in a orthodox stance. just watching very small clips of him sparring at the wildcard against unbeaten power puncher kayode (cruiserweight) and cleverly was clearly the boss in there backing him up. Recently however, cleverly hasnt been very inactive. Its easy to point the finger at his promoter but i feel he is being avoided.
I dont call walking in straight lines against a tuff but limited Karo Murat skilled. Hes got a good chin and work rate, skills hmm decent but nowt special and the same for punch power. hes got the wbo belt but has only fought 2 decent fighters. He would better getting in some past world champs and war horses to test him and develop rather than Kuziemski and Karpency. At this rate he will be even more shelterd than Hatton and other british belt holders off the past. Hes a decent figher who has been largely untested
against murat he proved how versatile he is. he can fight inside, outside. maybe he shouldnt have fought murat inside but he let his ego take over- wanting to prove he can beat you at your own game
He didnt even fight him inside he stood in front of guy who wanted to hook and let shots bounce of his chin!...then threw some combinations against a guy who goes into his shell most of them bounced of the guys forearms. If he does that against Cloud, Dawson,Ward or whoever hes getting stopped. HE will do well to get to be a recognised belt holder instead of a "fringe" WBO belt never mind legend
I guess time will tell :good I feel cleverly will be a better cruiserweight. reason being, he's a very tall light heavyweight and from watching his fights with bellew, fry and mcintosh, he fights much better against the taller fighters. you get to see more of his arsenal such as his defensive/counter punching moves.
thats a big factor he does have time - id like to see him with someone else in his corner (though i suppose it worked for JC) and in with some better opposition. Hes not a lost cause by any stretch but he needs seasoning
Most people don't claim that Clev is rubbish,quite the contrary. But he's in a poor division with a notoriously cautious promoter and it's resume and choice of opponents that stoke the fires.
