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This is a cute batch of BS, as Nathan Cleverly has decided to just live in the land of make believe when it comes to yesterday's 12-round shutout win over Tommy Karpency in Cardiff, saying that the unknown, grossly overmatched American was his toughest 12-round foe:
'It was good boxing match. It was an excellent fight,' he said. 'Tommy showed tonight why he has sparred with world-class fighters. He is very tough, has good power and is a tough fighter.
'A lot of people criticised our choice of opponent but I have moved through the British scene with ease, I was in university when I was knocking out the British guys.
'So it shows at world level you can't take anything for granted. I knew if I took my eye off the game he would punish me.
'He was probably the toughest opponent I have faced over the distance. A lot of guys are tough over six rounds, but wilt in the championship rounds.'
In boxing, there is lying for the sake of hype, lying to make yourself look good, lying for the sake of lying, and then there is this, which is more lying for the sake of hoping people will stop being mean to you. Sorry, but no, Tommy Karpency was not a tougher 12-round opponent than Tony Bellew last October.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not a fighter. I don't care. I have eyes. They work. I'm not legally blind or anything I have seen both fights. Yesterday's snoozefest whitewash mismatch was not a "good boxing match," let alone an "excellent fight," and to pretend that this fight was "world level" just because he holds one of the sport's thinnest paper titles is laughable.
Let's go to our recap of the fight, and the punch stats from Epix:
Final punch stats from Epix saw Cleverly land 374 of 987 punches, for a 38% connect rate, compared to Karpency's pathetic 87 punches landed in 692 thrown, a paltry 13% connect rate.
Jeez! That Cleverly, he sure had to work hard in this one. I mean, damn, Karpency landed a whole 7.25 punches per round!
This fight was a farce when it was signed, it was a farce when Frank Warren tried to defend it, it was a farce when Cleverly tried to defend it, it was a farce in the ring, and it's a farce today. That they managed to fool 5,000 Welshmen into showing up for this non-event is nice and all, bully for them, and Tommy Karpency seems like a nice guy.
But let's be really clear: When you say "Tommy showed tonight why he has sparred with world class fighters," and then you call yourself a world class fighter, it makes it seem a lot like you made 5,000 people pay for a sparring session. Which is pretty much what this was.
Also, just to pile on (because this miserable "fight" deserves it):
A lot of people criticised our choice of opponent but I have moved through the British scene with ease, I was in university when I was knocking out the British guys.
That doesn't mean anything at all. "A lot of people criticized our choice of opponent but" -- and then you'd expect him to defend the choice, somehow, but he doesn't. He just talks about when he was in "the British scene," as if he's somehow legitimately graduated that level by fighting weak opponents who don't happen to be from the UK, with a gifted title belt on the line.