By John Paul Swindells
In a busy shopping street in Cardiff, Wales, Nathan Cleverly arrived for a public workout ahead of his august 17th clash with heavy handed although relatively untested Russian destroyer Sergey Kovalev. We caught up with him to see what he thought about the fight. The confidence and the game plan Nathan put forward had me re-thinking over and over again how this fight could play out.
Being British myself I may not be the best to adjudge the favourite in this fight in a non-biased fashion. Contrary to most media writers however having followed Nathan’s career for many years my favourite for this fight is Cleverly for three simple reasons:
Reason 1:
Cleverly is tested. He has fought good level opponents at the right time in his career and has faced unbeaten and hungry fighters in Karo Murat and Tony Bellew and passed these tests with flying colors. He’s coming off an impressive performance against Krasniqi whose only losses came in his 1st and 3rd fight and who was riding an impressive 7 year unbeaten streak before fighting Cleverly. Sergey however has fought opponents who have all previously been beaten and a lot of the time by K.O. Kovalev’s recent marque victories over Cornelius White and Gabrielle Campilo although impressive aren’t quite as impressive as Nathan’s win’s over Krasniqi, Murat or Bellew.
Reason 2:
Home town advantage. I’m not talking bad judging decisions here. What I mean by this is that Nathans Welsh Fans are very vocal and the card is also stacked with Welsh fighters to ensure a partisan welsh crowd at the motor point arena in Cardiff. Once they get going we will see how it affects Kovalev to have a crowd that size all wanting to see him lose and making that fact very vocal.
Nathan Showed no fear when talking about Kovalev and believes the key to his victory lies in his maturity, defensive skills and not testing his Granite chin against a dangerous opponent which leads me nicely to…
Reason 3:
Nathan’s chin is up there with current and past British greats such as Carl Froch and Joe Calzaghe and his heart and conditioning is also undeniable having gone twelve rounds four times while having the possibility of fighting twelve rounds in his last fifteen fights.
This means Nathan is used to the intense training and everything else that comes with a twelve round championship fight. Kovalev on the other hand rarely makes it beyond the first four rounds usually down to him delivering a devastating KO and has only been the distance in a six and eight round fight. The eight round fight came against Darnell Boone (17 wins and 16 losses at the time of the fight and Kovalev was pushed to a split decision).
Nathan is a smart fighter and he knows what he has to do to take Kovalev to places he hasn’t been before. I can see Nathans strategy frustrating Kovalev and keep him missing as he breaks Kovalev down over the distance. The American public watching on HBO might not get the knock out they desire but the British public watching on Box nation could be overjoyed.
I could be way of with this prediction and the reasoning behind it and Kovalev may turn up and do exactly what is expected of him by HBO and the Majority of American media in this fight. This is just my two pence, or cents if you’re American or from a country that uses Euros.
What’s your opinion on this fight? Is Kovalev too heavy handed for Cleverly or do you see Cleverly’s experience shining on the night of the fight.
