The Welsh fighter, Nathan Cleverly, is at a critical period in his career.
His last six fights have seen three wins and three defeats but Cleverly reckons he is now at a stage in his career whereby he doesn?t want stocking filler fights, he wants to box the division?s elite.
After losing his WBO belt to Sergey Kovalev, in 2013, Cleverly had doubts about fighting again but, after a dalliance at cruiserweight, has dropped back down to light-heavyweight.
His latest fight saw him come up just short against the Polish fighter Andrzej Fonfara, but he did enough to suggest he has a future amongst the division?s elite.
Talking about the way forward, Cleverly has remarked to the media,
‘Every fight now till the end of my career, until I hang the gloves up I’ll go to war.
‘Real fights against elite fighters, world title belts or top level fighters on the big stage, only those now till the end of my career.
‘I could happily have stayed unbeaten against fringe contenders.
‘But I tested myself against Kovalev, who is probably the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
‘Obviously I lost my last fight, but again Fonfara is an elite level fighter.
‘There’s a large element of me which says you don’t want many of those fights.
‘They’re brutal, your nose is broken, your face is swollen and you can feel the swelling around your brain.
‘You definitely don’t want too many of them but I’m prepared to do it again.’
The talk doing the rounds suggests that Cleverly wants his next fight to be against the German WBA light-heavyweight champion, Juergen Braehmer, let?s hope that Eddie Hearn can get it set up.
Cleverly Looking To Take on the Elite
