Bad Left Hook - Cleverly vs Kovalev: Fight Week Coverage including live results, fight previews, updates, and moreGlobal Boxing News and Commentaryhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47131/backingthepack-fave.png2013-08-19T13:53:52-04:00http://www.badlefthook.com/rss/stream/43801312013-08-19T13:53:52-04:002013-08-19T13:53:52-04:00Cleverly not sure he'll fight on
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<figcaption>Matthew Horwood</figcaption>
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<p>Will Nathan Cleverly continue his boxing career after his loss to Sergey Kovalev? The fighter isn't sure, as he says in a revealing interview at Boxing News.</p> <p>Nathan Cleverly isn't quite sure if he plans to continue his boxing career or stick to his old claim that he'd retire when he lost a fight, as he tells <a href="http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/latest/feature/nathan-cleverly-reflects-on-crushing-loss-to-sergey-kovalev-i-remember-thinking-if-he-catches-me-i-m-gone" target="_blank">Boxing News' Tris Dixon in a revealing interview</a> following this past Saturday's <a href="http://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/17/4631810/cleverly-vs-kovalev-results-sergey-kovalev-smashes-nathan-cleverly-in" target="_blank">crushing loss to Sergey Kovalev</a>.</p>
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<p>"What's my gut instinct now? Just live a bit. Live a bit for a couple of months with friends, with family, have a few drinks, have a bit of junk food, have a few nights out, go on holiday. You know, your instinct will guide you. I've always said as soon as I lose in boxing I will get out of the sport. Do I stick to that? Who knows. We'll see."</p>
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<p>Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO) is still only 26 years old, and as he says, his loss to Kovalev (22-0-1, 20 KO) isn't exactly devastating, in that it doesn't mean he can't fight. He didn't lose to a journeyman or one of his soft touches -- he didn't lose to Shawn Hawk, in other words, he lost to a top fighter.</p>
<p>Cleverly adds that he believes some of the <a href="http://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/18/4632810/underprepared-and-overhyped-the-inevitable-fall-of-nathan-cleverly" target="_blank">criticism</a> of his previous fights is owed in part to the fact that he's tied to Frank Warren, the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjTii5yTHps" target="_blank">crusty old dean</a> that he is:</p>
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<p>"You look at The Ring magazine top 10 and Kovalev's the third top 10 guy I've fought in The Ring magazine rankings and that takes all the rankings in order, that's Kovalev, Bellew and Murat and I've fought three of them and I'm one of the top 10, too. That's not bad going. In fairness, a lot of people tar me because I'm a Frank Warren fighter, I think I get tarred with that brush and obviously there may have been a few soft defences in there which are no fault of my own. If I had my way, I would have been straight to the unification fights."</p>
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<p>"Obviously there may have been"? There obviously, absolutely, without any question were. Krasniqi wasn't Cleverly's fault; that was a mandatory. Frankly, I don't believe any of them were Cleverly's fault. But he was handled with kid gloves following the scare against Tony Bellew, and there's no defending Tommy Karpency and Shawn Hawk (or Ryan Coyne, the guy Hawk replaced) as world title challengers if you're looking at this as a sport, analytically. The given excuse here that those fights are some nice, easy money is not an excuse, even, it's a rationalization, and that's fine. Fair play.</p>
<p>But it's not just that Frank Warren is the promoter, it's that the fights were lousy and never for a second seemed competitive on paper, which followed up in the ring. For as nice a little relaxing payday they may have been for Cleverly, they were also fights that just didn't mean much of anything, and resulted in Cleverly being totally out of his depth against Kovalev. He was absolutely exposed in this fight. There's no getting around it.</p>
<p>Would Clev have fought Shumenov or Cloud or anyone else? I'm sure he would have. I've got no reason to believe that Nathan Cleverly didn't want those big fights straight away. He didn't shy away from signing up to fight Kovalev. No one ordered him to do it. It wasn't a mandatory. But the fact is that what came before gave him no useful experience for a step-up fight. There's a big gulf between Krasniqi, Hawk, Karpency and Kovalev. And there's a big gulf from the fights Cleverly says he wanted -- Shumenov, Cloud, Hopkins, Dawson, whatever -- and the fights he actually wound up taking. There was room in the middle there.</p>
<p>But that's neither here nor there at this point, either. I don't think there's any reason to <i>dislike</i> Nathan Cleverly. He's an honest guy, a great interview as we can see here, and he was an incredibly gracious loser this weekend. If he fights on, there's no reason he can't get back into the title mix at 175. If he doesn't, then he doesn't. That's his decision.</p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/19/4635516/nathan-cleverly-ive-always-said-as-soon-as-i-lose-in-boxing-i-willScott Christ2013-08-18T09:00:06-04:002013-08-18T09:00:06-04:00The Inevitable Fall of Nathan Cleverly
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<figcaption>Matthew Horwood</figcaption>
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<p>It's a story as old as boxing itself: a young fighter propped up and oversold, given the keys to the kingdom before battling back the tests that prove a fighter's true mettle. Nathan Cleverly is just the latest victim.</p> <p>Boxing promoters are liars by nature, and few in the modern age have endured as vigorously as Frank Warren, the man who has loomed large in British boxing and on the world scene for the last three decades and counting. Warren has given the public the careers of Ricky Hatton, Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe, and Nigel Benn, among others. These days, he's lost some of his footing to Eddie Hearn, son of former rival Barry Hearn, and the upstart Matchroom Boxing outfit, which has taken over the Sky Sports coverage in the United Kingdom, leaving the veteran promoter to seek his fortunes with the subscription channel BoxNation.</p>
<p>Now 61 years old, Warren has been up and down, counted out, and bounced back many times. Though Hearn and Matchroom have put the heat on him, just this year he's been able to sign hot prospect and super bantamweight contender Carl Frampton away from Hearn's stable, a strike back after Matchroom signed up former Warren fighters Ricky Burns and George Groves.</p>
<p>Nathan Cleverly was told many times over that he was a key figure in Warren's long-term future planning. He became "world champion" despite never having to beat a "world champion," and his BSc in mathematics from Cardiff University was pushed hard, first on Sky Sports, and then later on BoxNation. Much was made of Cleverly, an athletic, good looking young fighter, being the sort that didn't need boxing to make a living. This was no kid from the wrong side of the tracks saved by the discipline and dedication that it takes to be a serious professional boxer. Cleverly could have done something else, but his passion for the sport put him into the hurt business for a living.</p>
<p>It needs to be said that yesterday's loss to Sergey Kovalev isn't really damning in and of itself, but there have to be serious concerns about what it may have proven. Kovalev (22-0-1, 20 KO) is simply a devastating puncher to both the head and body, with solid technique and a simple, focused approach. This is a legitimate top fighter right now, and Cleverly getting mowed down by the Russian does not mean that Cleverly can't fight, or can't get back to the higher levels.</p>
<p>What's troubling is that, like so many fighters before, Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO) was sold as something he simply hadn't yet proven to be. Warren had given Cleverly a big start to his pro career, and had promoted him extremely well, leading Cleverly to state that he would remain loyal to the promoter in March of this year, after the back-to-back defections of Burns and Groves.</p>
<p>"Things haven't been great for Frank in the past week, I'm sure he'd say that, but I have no desire to seek a move away from him," Cleverly said in a BoxNation press release. "Times are tough with the current economic climate and it's unfortunate with certain fighters getting frustrated when bills are postponed, but that's life and that is boxing.</p>
<p>"But me personally? I am staying put, I feel loyalty to Frank because he's stayed loyal to me. He's survived rough patches before and will again, I know from experience he is the man who can get a fight made with Hopkins and Golden Boy."</p>
<p>That fight with Bernard Hopkins did not materialize, and perhaps sensing a shift in how Cleverly was being perceived by some media and many fans, both fighter and promoter knew that the time to put the cards on the table was looming.</p>
<p>So instead of Hopkins, they signed to fight Kovalev, categorizing him as a potentially overrated fighter with some U.S. fanfare who would put Clev on the next level. It didn't work out that way, and once we were all of two or three minutes into the fight, it was very clear: the boy was now playing with the men, and he wasn't prepared.</p>
<p>Promoters are liars, and part of their deception is to always, always make something or someone seem bigger or better than they are. Cleverly, 26, "won" his world title by virtue of three wins in 2010-11. First, he defeated the solid Karo Murat in a WBO eliminator bout, which is probably still his true best performance to date. After that, he beat Nadjib Mohammedi for the interim WBO title, and after Juergen Braehmer didn't (or couldn't) come to the United Kingdom for his scheduled defense against Cleverly, the young Welshman got to claim the title by beating Aleksy Kuziemski, a non-contender who proved to be chum.</p>
<p>A grudge match with domestic press rival Tony Bellew followed, and Cleverly was expected by many to dominate an opponent who had struggled somewhat with the likes of Bob Ajisafe and Ovill McKenzie. Instead, Bellew proved a stiff challenge for Cleverly, who escaped with a decision victory at Liverpool's Echo Arena.</p>
<p>What happened after told the story, even if nobody was saying it in ringside interviews, TV puff pieces, or friendly magazine articles.</p>
<p>The competition was scaled back, and fairly dramatically so, at that. Following Bellew, Cleverly was matched against American Tommy Karpency, whose claim to "fame" was either being a male nurse for his day job, or having at some point sparred with Roy Jones Jr, both selling points for a fighter no one had ever really heard of, who was in no legitimate way a serious contender. The WBO had Karpency rather absurdly ranked as a cruiserweight, and to fight Cleverly, they moved him into a No. 14 ranking at light heavyweight, with zero victories of note on his record.</p>
<p>Cleverly easily routed Karpency over 12 rounds in Cardiff, then scheduled a fight against Ryan Coyne, another non-contender. Don King blocked that fight, so a sideways step was made and another patsy signed up, this time sending Cleverly to Los Angeles to face Shawn Hawk on a Golden Boy bill on Showtime. Cleverly won easily once again, clearly outclassing the level of opponent he'd already beaten handily three and four years prior.</p>
<p>Robin Krasniqi was named WBO mandatory challenger, and he was the next to fail to challenge Cleverly. Krasniqi, with a gaudy 39-2 record that could pop like an overinflated balloon at the lightest pin prick of inspection, was himself no serious contender, despite the sanctioning body's insistence. Cleverly won every round, and never faced any real resistance.</p>
<p>Going into the fight with Kovalev, my personal feeling was that maybe folks were right, that Kovalev wasn't quite all he was sold as being himself. After all, Kathy Duva, too, is a promoter, and though more affable than Warren, herself a professional liar always selling and overselling, for the good of her company, herself, and her fighters. So I picked Cleverly to surprise a lot of people and grind out a decision, surviving Kovalev's early assault, and then wearing him down with his signature high workrate and durability as the fight progressed, emptying the Russian's gas tank.</p>
<p>It took a round to figure out that this wasn't going to happen. With nervous excitement and even a touch of jumpy fear, Cleverly offered nothing in the first round, as Kovalev marched forward and fearlessly threw heavy shots to the body and head. The pattern continued in round two, as Cleverly had no answers other than to keep his guard high and tight, shielding himself as best he could from the thudding force of the "Krusher," who continued to whip punches in Clev's direction, the so-called champion unable to do much in return.</p>
<p>Round three was the real end. As Kovalev unleashed more wicked blows, Cleverly began to fold; not because he wanted to, but because he couldn't stop the Russian from doing as he pleased. Kovalev fought like a shark who smelled blood in the water from the time Cleverly stepped onto the walkway to make his entrance, with no robe but a headband for an accessory, doing a bit of a dance. Cleverly sold confidence the way Warren sold a world champion. Neither of them had what they claimed.</p>
<p>After his second trip to the canvas in the round, Cleverly was all but given a free pass by referee Terry O'Connor, who recklessly stationed himself in the middle of the action while Kovalev tried to finish the deed at the close of the round. Falling into O'Connor's caring and somewhat fearful embrace, Cleverly was essentially carried to his corner by the referee, as the BoxNation commentators wondered if he had stopped the fight, what with all his arm waving and the like. O'Connor should have stopped the fight. When he didn't, trainer and father Vince Cleverly should have stopped the fight.</p>
<p>Nathan Cleverly, though, is a fighter, and he'd likely tell you he wanted to go out on his shield. Dangerously sent back into the lion's den to start round four, Cleverly had no legs, a frazzled and overwhelmed bit of body language and facial expression giving him away like a bad gambler.</p>
<p>To O'Connor's credit, it took only 21 seconds of round four for him to pull the plug and keep Cleverly from absorbing any truly unnecessary punishment. Cleverly's tenuous grasp on the WBO light heavyweight title had really ended in round three, maybe even before the fighters ever started throwing punches. Now, the official announcement would come, and Nathan Cleverly, showing his class, congratulated the other side, from Kovalev on down the line with the rest of the team.</p>
<p>By all accounts, Cleverly is a likable young man and a hard-working student of the game. His overconfidence comes not from arrogance, it would seem, but from being told by enablers that he'd done more than he had. A fighter's psyche can be a fragile thing, which is why you see the entourages, the hangers-on, the grown men hanging around yelling into another grown man's ear that he's the best, he's the champ, he can't be beaten. Fighters put their health and their lives on the line for a job, as spectators scream for blood and want knockouts, which is a sporting way of saying they want to see a man trying to support his family on the ground, concussed, and incapacitated, however briefly.</p>
<p>Cleverly, like anyone, used that confidence to carry him on through laborious and trying training camps, which rather unfortunately led him into a series of mismatches designed to lend credence to a façade.</p>
<p><i>"You're the man, Clev. You're undefeated. You're world champion. You're winning world title fights."</i></p>
<p>Technically, Nathan Cleverly will hit the comeback trail as Former World Champion Nathan Cleverly, still young with a long future ahead of him. In the harsh reality of the boxing world, which will always expose the pretenders and the phonies at some point, Cleverly is really back to the drawing board as Stalled Prospect Nathan Cleverly, a talented fighter who has done no more at this point than he had by 2010, when he did an impressive job on Murat to thrust himself into the title mix with the WBO.</p>
<p>Going from the relatively creampuff likes of Karpency, Hawk, and Krasniqi straight into a ferocious, focused Sergey Kovalev displayed an underprepared young man who felt with wincing pain and cruel certainty his bubble being burst. The Nathan Cleverly he'd been told was coming into this fight never really existed. This was not a seasoned young world champion, turning back credible challenges to his throne, headed toward certain world stardom. This was a fighter whose career had been managed in such a way that he walked straight into a buzzsaw, his head filled with the idea that not only were the blades duller than advertised, but that in fact the machine may not even be truly operational. Calzaghe-Lacy this was not, unless you want to flip the roles.</p>
<p>If Cleverly can come back from this, it will say a lot about him, as well as a lot about Sergey Kovalev. If he cannot, and if he's just not good enough to be a real top-level fighter, it will come down to quite a few things, not the least of which is that he was marched into the ring against Kovalev having not been given the proper preparation for what awaited him at Motorpoint Arena. There is a method to the madness of matchmaking, and while Cleverly was frankly handled very well up to a certain point, the kid gloves pampering of the last two years did him no favors when he had to step up and face a real challenge.</p>
<p>But that's boxing. Always has been and always will be. Some of the Rising Stars of today are also going to go this way, while guys like Kovalev, signed to a second-tier promoter because nobody else saw much in him, will emerge and show us the truth. You can't hide from this sort of inevitable result if you've got the ambition to really prove you're what you've said you are. To Cleverly's credit and detriment, he had that ambition. Hopefully, he'll regain it, and learn from what went so very wrong during his development, and made him little more than a sacrificial lamb against Sergey Kovalev.</p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/18/4632810/underprepared-and-overhyped-the-inevitable-fall-of-nathan-cleverlyScott Christ2013-08-17T18:02:52-04:002013-08-17T18:02:52-04:00Results: Kovalev crushes Cleverly in four
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<figcaption>Scott Heavey</figcaption>
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<p>The WBO light heavyweight title has a new owner, as Sergey Kovalev demolished Nathan Cleverly in four rounds this afternoon in Cardiff.</p> <p>The questions were simple: would Sergey Kovalev's power translate against a better class of opponent, and how would he handle being hit back by a good fighter? We found out that the answer to the first is yes, and the latter question never was addressed, as Kovalev smashed Nathan Cleverly to win the WBO light heavyweight title in four rounds today in Cardiff.</p>
<p>Kovalev (22-0-1, 20 KO) looked relaxed and in control from the opening bell, whereas Cleverly (26-1, 12 KO) looked nervous and a bit jittery, keeping a really high and tight guard, trying to avoid Kovalev's much-hyped power shots. Kovalev would occasionally look to the body to get Cleverly to drop the guard, and that may have played a role by round three, when Kovalev caught Cleverly hard, putting him down twice, and really the fight should have ended there.</p>
<p>Instead, referee Terry O'Connor basically made himself a hazard with his arms waving all over, far too close to the action if he wasn't going to stop the fight, as Kovalev tried to finish it off during the end of round three. O'Connor then basically carried a clearly beaten and damaged Cleverly back to the corner after the bell, where Cleverly was plopped down into his stool and sent back out for the inevitable finish.</p>
<p>It wasn't long into round four when O'Connor had no choice but to end the fight, as Cleverly went down again. He just had nothing left, couldn't protect himself anymore, and wasn't fighting back. He was just plain beaten by a stronger, superior fighter.</p>
<p>"This is the first title in my collection," Kovalev, 30, said plainly after the fight, making his future ambitions clear in just a few words.</p>
<p>"We kind of knew from the very first time we saw him that this was his destiny," promoter Kathy Duva said. "I'm just delighted to work with him." When asked why other promoters passed over a chance to sign Kovalev, Duva replied, "I can't speak for anyone else's failures, only our success."</p>
<p>Duva then said that HBO would be signing Kovalev to a contract, and I think we can all agree that it's the right call. This is an exciting, powerful fighter who is now fully established. As for Cleverly, it's back to the drawing board, without question. Whether or not today's result was simply a reflection of how dominant and overwhelming Kovalev can be remains to be seen. But one thing that I might observe, being an observer, is that Cleverly was simply not properly prepared for the fighter he faced today. This was a long way up from Robin Krasniqi, Tommy Karpency, and Shawn Hawk. Cleverly didn't pass this test.</p>
<p>"He'll have to regroup from this defeat. It's not the end of the world. He's a young man, he's only 26. He can come back. He's got to learn from it," promoter Frank Warren said after the fight.</p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/17/4631810/cleverly-vs-kovalev-results-sergey-kovalev-smashes-nathan-cleverly-inScott Christ2013-08-17T17:27:56-04:002013-08-17T17:27:56-04:00Results: Smith knocks out Buckland
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<figcaption>Alexandra Beier</figcaption>
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<p>Another domestic title changed hands in Cardiff, as Stephen Smith shellacked Gary Buckland to lift the British super featherweight title in the fifth round.</p> <p>First it was Enzo Maccarinelli scoring an upset to win the Commonwealth light heavyweight title, and shortly after, Stephen Smith scored a brutal knockout of Gary Buckland to win the British super featherweight title today in Cardiff.</p>
<p>Buckland (27-3, 9 KO) was his usual aggressive self, but it was Smith (17-1, 10 KO) who used that to his advantage, ending the night in stunning fashion with a gorgeous right uppercut that put Buckland down hard and fast. It was clear as soon as Buckland hit the canvas that the fight was over, and indeed it was.</p>
<p>For Smith, 28, this is a big-time win, obviously, and it may be interesting to see him again face Lee Selby somewhere down the line, if Selby eventually moves up to super featherweight. Selby, of course, is the only man to defeat Smith, beating him for the British and Commonwealth featherweight belts back in 2011. Selby still holds those titles, and is due back in the ring on October 5 against Ryan Walsh.</p>
<p>But now we turn our attention to the main event: Nathan Cleverly vs Sergey Kovalev. <a href="http://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/17/4630440/cleverly-vs-kovalev-fight-time-live-stream-results-and-round-by-round" target="_blank">We've got live coverage running</a>, so join us!</p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/17/4631758/cleverly-vs-kovalev-results-stephen-smith-wins-british-superScott Christ2013-08-17T16:43:55-04:002013-08-17T16:43:55-04:00Results: Enzo Maccarinelli wins Commonwealth belt
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<figcaption>Scott Heavey</figcaption>
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<p>Enzo Maccarinelli had one of his finest nights in the sport, beating Ovill McKenzie to lift the Commonwealth light heavyweight title.</p> <p>At 32, Enzo Maccarinelli was figured to be finished a while ago. But tonight in Cardiff against Ovill McKenzie, he had one of his best performances, stopping the defending Commonwealth light heavyweight champ in the 11th round to lift the title.</p>
<p>Maccarinelli (37-6, 29 KO) started well and looked to bank the early rounds, but the durable McKenzie (21-12, 10 KO) battled his way back into the fight in the middle rounds, sweeping the fifth through seventh on my card, and getting close at a 4-3 rounds deficit in my view. From there, though, Maccarinelli showed true grit and courage, absorbing some shots, fighting through some obvious exhaustion on tired legs, to keep coming at McKenzie.</p>
<p>In the 11th, having opened up a likely solid lead on the cards, Maccarinelli closed the door, thrilling the fans in Cardiff who had rooted hard for their countryman throughout the fight.</p>
<p>After the bout, Maccarinelli told BoxNation at ringside that he thought he'd broken his nose early in the fight, and that despite not sticking to the game plan and being a bit disappointed with his performance, he stuck through it and was able to grind out the victory. It was an extremely humble interview for a man who wasn't expected to get back to this level by too many folks, who didn't figure to have many wins like this left in his body. But he did it tonight, and he kicked off the meat of the BoxNation bill in fine fashion.</p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/17/4631676/cleverly-vs-kovalev-results-enzo-maccarinelli-stops-ovill-mckenzie-toScott Christ2013-08-17T14:13:36-04:002013-08-17T14:13:36-04:00Cleverly-Kovalev: Odds and preview
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<figcaption>Chris Brunskill</figcaption>
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<p>Nathan Cleverly defends his WBO light heavyweight title shortly against Sergey Kovalev. Tom Craze breaks down the fight and the betting odds.</p> <p>Today's Boxing After Dark feels like somewhat of an anomaly. Not only does it have a co-feature without a single US fighter on the card - instead dominated by fighters from those boxing hotbeds: Australia, Russia, Wales - but it's also one that, refreshingly, doesn't have a runaway betting favourite in sight either.</p>
<p>The phrase 'it's a pick-em fight' is often overused among commentators of the sport; generally blissfully unaware that their apparent 50/50 is listed with the oddsmakers as a lopsided mismatch. There are a thousand other betting-related turns-of-phrase that, when misused, irritate me immensely, but since when was this my soapbox? (Just so you know, Jim Watt, after a fighter's won five straight rounds and scored a knockdown, then yes, he probably HAS just about gone odds-on favourite with the bookies.)</p>
<p>The good news here - and a testament to fine matchmaking as it is - is that even the most woefully misinformed can call Daniel Geale vs. Darren Barker and Nathan Cleverly vs. Sergey Kovalev coin tosses of contests on paper and not be too way off the mark.</p>
<p>Indeed, in the case of Cleverly-Kovalev - the more compelling of the two bouts - there's not a single bookmaker (at least not among the 20+ listed on the betting bible oddschecker.com) that makes either light-heavyweight wider than a -125 favourite. Both have favouritism, however small, depending where you look. What's really interesting - and very rare it is, too - is that the prices, the marginal shifts here and there across the market, fluctuate either. Fancy backing Cleverly at slight odds-against (+105)? Fancy backing Kovalev elsewhere at even money? Is it obvious that this is the sort of quirk I get far too excited about?</p>
<p>There are a few bookies here who've gone down the traditional (and indeed, strictly speaking, accurate) pick-em route - -110 the pair. It's no surprise, then, that seems to be a fight that's polarising opinion - perhaps excessively so in places - and certainly there's a case to made for backing either man.</p>
<p>Certainly, you'd think Kovalev (21-0-1, 19 KOs) would have his work cut out to get a judge's nod on the road at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, in front of what is, obviously, going to be a partisan and pro-Cleverly crowd. Home advantage could be enough of a factor as it is, but, to reinforce his claims further, Cleverly (26-0, 12 KOs) has an eye-catching, often flashy style, backed up by a tremendous punch output and a Calzaghe-eque tendency for dropping his hands and taunting his opponent, even when perhaps he's not as totally in control of the contest as he'd like to think. It's worth noting that that's not entirely a criticism - he's a physically impressive young boxer, technically decent, with fast hands and a knack for generally turning bouts into the type of fight he wants them to be, irrespective of opponent.</p>
<p>The big question here (1 of 2) is whether he can get himself into position to do the same, to fight in his own signature way, against an opponent who figures to be a considerable step-up from the lucky beneficiaries and competition winners among the WBO's ranking system who somehow earned themselves a world title tilt. The second big question is whether he has enough power to keep the heavy-handed Kovalev at range for the distance.</p>
<p>A slight height and reach advantage may help his cause, but while Cleverly throws plenty in bunches, he doesn't have notable power - just two stoppages in his last six - and may have to rely on sheer workrate to discourage the Russian. As you'd expect, a Cleverly win by stoppage is the rank outsider (draw withstanding) of the available outcomes in the Method of Victory markets - at a best-priced +750, it's rated by the compilers as even less likely than a Russian coming over to Wales, via Florida, and walking away with a decision over the hometown man (+700).</p>
<p>Make no mistake though, this is a step-up for Kovalev too. Just as Cleverly's wins over Tony Bellew and Karo Murat stand out as career-best performances in a sea of otherwise unremarkable fare, Kovalev's burgeoning reputation - while bolstered by a string of brutal KOs - has been built largely on that three-round demolition of, at the time, the then-highly-rated Gabriel Campillo. It's worth considering, though, the finer detail here: Campillo came into the Kovalev fight after a nine-month lay-off after, frankly, getting screwed against Tavoris Cloud in Texas. Prior to that, he fought to a draw with the aforementioned Murat (who also held a contentious decision win over Campillo three years prior), who Cleverly largely made look silly before stopping him inside ten rounds. Campillo, too, has since been flattened by the modest Andrzej Fonfara, and so using the Spaniard as any kind of yardstick as to how good the Russian actually is feels slightly problematic.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it's been hard to not be hugely impressed by Kovalev thus far, particularly based on recent form, and when you combine sound technical prowess and intelligent offensive work with mule-like power it's a safe assumption that people will get excited (see also: Gennady Golovkin, Lucas Matthysse). It could well be that Kovalev's biggest hurdle here - assuming he's as good as he's hinted he might be - is a mental one: how does he react to being the road fighter against a man, in Cleverly, who won't give him room to operate or time to think? Unlike Campillo, Cleverly starts fast, which - given the Russian's recent run of early knockouts - could spell fireworks in the first half of this fight. This, really, is a fascinating match-up, full of intangibles, what-ifs, and what would appear to be a superb mesh of styles. So where's the angle?</p>
<p>It's easy to make an argument for two main outcomes here: Cleverly outworks and hurries his man, basing his attack on simply throwing more and using what should be a marked speed advantage to move out of harm's way. Dropping his hands all fight, as he's so known for doing, hardly feels well advised, but it feels safe to say that the Welshman won't have any intention of letting the visitor set the pace. On that basis - factoring in home advantage - there are worse bets you'll place than the market-best +162 for the Cleverly decision, but when using the same logic it's the unanimous decision at +250 that's the far more appealing.</p>
<p>But what of Kovalev? Opposing the hot streak is probably the most difficult aspect to overcome in the approach to finding a bet on this fight, and it's by no means the right thing to do. Kovalev's recent sequence of round totals somehow almost feels closer to binary code than a professional boxer's KO round tallies - remarkably, in 22 fights, he's only fought 57 founds - just over 2.5 rounds per contest, and the average hasn't been raised by recent progress in opposition - going back as far a two-round technical draw two years ago, the sequence reads 3-3-3-2-7.</p>
<p>Those backing the Kovalev stoppage here can do so at +150 - the marginally-favored outcome with the books - but there's perhaps scope to be a little bolder. The Russian doesn't generally earn his KOs by gradually wearing down his opponent - and, indeed, this is something that could bode well for Cleverly should he be able to weather what's likely to be an early storm - and so it's easier to side with the trend.</p>
<p>That seven-round stoppage of Roman Simankov is the latest Kovalev has stopped an opponent, and so the +350 that he gets the job done anywhere in the first half here looks the more attractive option to him taking Cleverly into the trenches in the later rounds. Interestingly, too, those knockouts have come early or generally not at all - Simankov excluded - and so narrowing the bracket from 1-6 to 1-4 at +600 could be worth a look. In all 19 of Kovalev's stoppages, the round mean works out as 2.15 rounds, and there's +1200 on offer for those audacious enough to back that he does the business in the first six minutes here, although the fact that Cleverly is of an unquestionably higher pedigree that the guys Kovalev has been knocking back to Chelyabinsk doesn't lend itself to the statistics. Finally, the draw is a flat +2500 across the board, but holds scant appeal here.</p>
<p><b>Elsewhere...</b></p>
<p>Daniel Geale (-150) vs. Darren Barker (+170)<br>Jonathan Gonzalez (+110) vs. Giovani Segura (-120) <br>Jhonathan Romero (-350) vs. Kiko Martinez (+333)</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/box_bet" target="_blank"><i>Follow Tom Craze on Twitter @Box_Bet</i></a></p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/17/4631310/cleverly-vs-kovalev-betting-odds-and-fight-previewTom Craze2013-08-17T05:16:59-04:002013-08-17T05:16:59-04:00Cleverly-Kovalev: Live updates and discussion
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<figcaption>Richard Maynard/Frank Warren Promotions</figcaption>
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<p>Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12 KO) defends his WBO light heavyweight title against Sergey Kovalev (21-0-1, 19 KO) today in Cardiff, Wales, with two domestic title fights on the undercard.</p> <p>This afternoon starting at 2:00 pm EDT on BoxNation, Frank Warren's big bill from Cardiff, Wales, will go live, and Bad Left Hook will be here for live updates and results. HBO will air the show's main event on tape delay tonight at 9:45 pm EDT.</p>
<p>In the main event, Nathan Cleverly will face Sergey Kovalev with Cleverly's WBO light heavyweight title at stake. Both fighters are unbeaten and looking to take a step into elite status in the 175-pound division. Cleverly will have home field advantage, but Kovalev is a true danger on paper, as he has shown major league power in his recent fights broadcast on the NBC Sports Network, building some buzz.</p>
<p>On the undercard, we'll see two domestic title fights. Gary Buckland will defend the British super featherweight title against Stephen Smith, and Ovill McKenzie will take on Enzo Maccarinelli in a rematch of a controversial fight from last November. McKenzie's Commonwealth light heavyweight title will be on the line.</p>
<p>Join us this afternoon!</p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/17/4630440/cleverly-vs-kovalev-fight-time-live-stream-results-and-round-by-roundScott Christ2013-08-16T23:20:33-04:002013-08-16T23:20:33-04:00Sergey Kovalev KO reel
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<p>Sergey Kovalev (21-0-1, 19 KO) faces Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12 KO) for the WBO light heavyweight tomorrow in Cardiff. Check out some of his highlights before the big fight.</p>
https://www.badlefthook.com/2013/8/16/4630084/cleverly-vs-kovalev-video-sergey-kovalev-ko-highlight-reelScott Christ