Nathan Cleverly has his third opponent in the last two days. Yesterday, Juergen Braehmer pulled out of a Saturday fight in London, and today, short-notice replacement Tony Bellew was out of the running because he couldn't make the 175-pound limit in time.
Cleverly, who is now full WBO light heavyweight titlist, will face Aleksy Kuziemski. Kuziemski, 34, fights out of Poland with a 21-2 (5 KO) record, and it's an empty record at that. His steps up in competition have been against Braehmer in 2009 (TKO-11 loss) and Dmitry Sukhotsky (TKO-6 loss) last year.
Cleverly (21-0, 10 KO) must be pretty disappointed or at the least let down by all of this. Instead of fighting for his first major title, he won it because the other guy wouldn't show up. And now instead of a heated domestic dust-up against a press rival, he's facing a lightly-regarded non-contender with no name value whatsoever.
Whether this fight goes on last or not, the main event of Saturday's show is now for all intents and purposes the prospect vs prospect clash between James DeGale and George Groves. It all could be worse, but Sky Box Office shows have become positively snake-bitten.