Nathan Cleverly Backed To Regain World Title

Two of the three boxers to have beaten Nathan Cleverly have backed the Welshman to regain the world title on Saturday night.

Sergey Kovalev and Tony Bellew both believe Cleverly can beat Juergen Braehmer in Germany to become WBO light-heavyweight champion.

If he wins then Cleverly will become the first Welsh fighter to regain a world crown at the same weight – three years after he lost to Kovalev.

The Russian – who inflicted one of three defeats on the Caerphilly fighter’s record, along with Bellew and most recently Andrezej Fonfara – reckons Cleverly can cause an upset.

“I think that Cleverly has a very good chance to get a victory over Juergen Braehmer,” said Kovalev.

“Braehmer is a tough fighter. He can take hard punches and stay on his legs. This will be an interesting fight, but I think Cleverly will win on points.”

Cleverly is a big underdog having lost three out of his last six fights. But those defeats coincided with an unsuccessful move up to cruiserweight, where he was over-powered by Englishman Bellew two years ago.

Cleverly was scheduled to fight Braehmer five years ago, but the contest fell through – a factor Bellew admits has swayed his support towards a fighter more used to being a bitter rival.

Bellew said: “I wish him good luck and I hope he pulls it off. I hope he beats Braehmer because I do believe if he’d have fought him when he should’ve fought him all those years ago, he would’ve beaten him.

“I am just not sure about the miles on the clock and how much desire he’s got left in him. Only Cleverly will know himself.

“One thing I will say is the money won’t be great going over to Germany that’s for sure, so that won’t be an issue and you can’t say he’s just going out there for the money.

“He is the challenger and he’s not the mandatory challenger either so he must be going out there with the belief that he can beat him. And as I said, depending on how much he wants it, he has the capability of beating him. He can definitely out-work him.”

Bellew lost the first fight with Cleverly at light-heavyweight in October 2011 but redressed the balance when the Cleverly stepped up to cruiserweight in the re-match in November 2015.

Bellew, recently-crowned WBC world champion at 200lbs, still labels his opponent’s performance in their second fight as “ridiculous” but believes boxing back down at light-heavyweight could bring the best out the best in Cleverly.

“The second time he didn’t freeze, he just knew what was coming,” he said.

“I thought he was playing possum in all honesty but when I look back on that fight he was physically tired, blowing out of his backside. But in the first one he did go to the body quite well for a light-heavyweight and he does throw clusters of punches well.

“He is definitely world-class, there is no debating that. He’s beaten some really good fighters, so he is a world-class fighter. He’s not an elite level fighter but he has got the tools to beat Braehmer but whether he’s willing to put it on the line is another story.”