Nathan Cleverly, Modern day Joe Calzaghe?

Poor man's Calzaghe.

He lacks the chin (not that I'm overreacting and saying his is glass; just that it's nowhere close to Joe's) and speed. Otherwise they are indeed similar.


...but a slower, less durable Calzaghe isn't really cut out to be top-line elite on paper, are they? His speed and chin were big factors in his success.

 

Calzaghe at his best was at least a class above Clev, but Nathan deserves huge props for taking a voluntary defense against a guy who's mauled over most of his opponents inside 4 rounds

hopefully he didn't take a career threatening beating, because even when the official score was announced he looked very unsteady on his feet

 

Even Calzaghe near the end was vastly better than Cleverly.

 

No, the difference is that when Cleverly stepped up he failed but when Calzaghe stepped up he succeeded, that Calzaghe could go to that next level to hang with the best when he needed to - even if he never really tried for most of his career - while Cleverly failed to do so when he attempted it.

 

Only morons compared him to Calzaghe, he was clearly a class below. Being gifted a title didn't make him world class, especially when the best win he has is the british level Tony Bellew.

Easy money.

 

Well, a couple of things: comparisons made sense as he does emulate the style a bit. Also, his victory over Bellew was controversial so maybe his best clean result is Murat.

 

:yepI would back Calz coming out of retirement to beat clev now TBH

 

Calaghe had good power at super middle from the start of his career, Cleverly started as a feather fisted light middle, just because he emulated Calzaghes style doesn't make them exactly "similar" to be fair

 

When did Calzaghe step up??? He beat an overhyped Jeff Lacy he beat mikkel Kessler in a close fight Carl Froch beat Kessler too far easier. And please do not mention the fight with Bernard Hopkins where he got put on his ass, slapped like a girl throughout the fight deliberately slapped Nard low , tried to ***ually assault Nard too before being awarded a decision he no way in hell deserved

 

Canno tcomment on Cleverly yet but will watch re run tonight. Have never seen him fight

 

Lacy was a p4per when Calzaghe beat him(on most lists, believe it or not, think of Adrien Broner today), a power punching monster olympian world champion. If Cleverly had beaten Kovalev tonight, the same thing would have been said about him

 

:tired

Hopkins, today, beats Kovalev. Clevery was never anygood, he has been handed a title because hes with ******.

He beat Aleksy Kusiemski(who?) for the title ffs.

 

When he fought Eubank having never gone past 8 rounds in his career prior to that, when he fought Kessler when Kessler was considered his only legitimate rival for title of Super Middleweight King, when he moved up to take on Hopkins when Hopkins was considered the greatest Light Heavyweight in the world and only one place behind him in the pound-4-pound rankings.

Froch lost to Kessler back in 2010 and beat him in 2013. Kessler has aged well, but he's not the fighter he once was, and Calzaghe beat him in his prime.

And I bring up the Hopkins fight becuase it is ****ing relevant. The fight was close, ugly and difficult to score, there are reasons both men could claim to be derserving of the win and if you think Hopkins deserved the it then more power to you, but that doesn't change the fact that Calzaghe was good enough to fight a still elite-level Hopkins at Hopkins' preferred weight on even footing, that many believed he did enough to win and that his performance was vindicated as being above the average world level fighter when Hopkins, in his very next fight, made the undefeated dominant middleweight of the day in Kelly Pavlik look like garbage on the way to a wide UD win. As for Calzaghe trying to "***ually assult" Hopkins, that was mockery in response to Hopkins play-acting after he pretended to be low-blowed to get a breather.

 

Calzaghe was much more awkward than Cleverly, kept his chin down a lot more and if you look at the foot work of Calzaghe compared to Cleverly they are leagues apart. Cleverly stayed still when he was hurt today.