When you're a world champion you have expectation on your shoulders, especially when you're in a competitive weight division and your either American or British. Sadly for WBO Light Heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11) his competition has, in recent years, really fallen below an "acceptable" level and things don't get better with his up coming defense against late stand in Shawn Hawk (23-2-1, 17).
Thankfully for Cleverly, this fight isn't totally his fault. Originally he was meant to fight in his native Wales against the highly ranked Ukrainian Vyacheslav Uzelkov (27-2, 16), that was however scrapped so that Cleverly could face unbeaten American Ryan Coyne (21-0, 9) in a show case bout. Sadly that bout was scrapped when Coyne's promoter, Don King stepped in and prevented it from taking place. With only a week left, Hawk eventually accepted the bout, despite a number of complaints and other offers, including one from unbeaten American Cedric Agnew.
Sadly this is the world of boxing and what at first looked like an interesting defense for Cleverly has become nothing more than a joke bout that has to be, rightly, criticised. Whilst it's easy to blame Don King for preventing the Coyne fight, that fight it's self hardly looked competitive and instead the blame needs to lie with Cleverly's promoter Frank Warren who has been too busy riding the coat tails of other, better known fighters than actually getting his fighter a decent fight. The Uzelkov fight was decent enough, though the division also has fighters like Cornelius White (20-1, 16) and Isaac Chilemba (20-1-1, 9) who are both deserving of a world title fight, unlike Coyne and Hawk.
Anyway with that said Cleverly himself isn't a bad fighter. At just 25 years old he has time to get the recognition he likely feels he deserves and although he'll often have his reign criticised this shouldn't take away from the fact that the young Welshman is talented. Cleverly however not only has poor defenses hanging over his head but also the fact he will for ever be linked with former training partner Joe Calzaghe, a fighter who himself had numerous poor defenses before making a name for himself later in his career.
Cleverly is a fighter who is still developing and whilst he'll never be a thunderous puncher he is an aggressive and hard working fighter who appears to have a genuinely sensation engine (one thing he certainly picked up from his time with Calzaghe). He's relentless and can break fighters down on that relentless work rate, as he did with Karo Murat in arguably his best win to date. Despite often bringing pressure, Cleverly, at his best, is actually a genuinely talented boxer who can hit and move, and this was what he did earlier in his career when arguably he was testing himself more against the likes of Tony Oakey, Danny McIntosh (who was then unbeaten) and Antonio Brancalion. Sadly the hitting and moving seems to have gone from his game and replaced by the more exciting brawling that has almost seen him lose to the likes of Tony Bellew and Nadjib Mohammedi.
Sadly for someone who enjoys a tear up Cleverly hasn't got the hurtful 1-punch power, in fact, the Murat stoppage aside, it's hard to really say with "world" level opponent Cleverly has stopped (with Aleksy Kuziemski being his only other stoppage win in the past 2 years). As well as the lack of power, Cleverly also lacks a true defense, especially when brawling, and whilst his chin does seem to be solid, he's taking a lot of shots which will have a cumulative effect over his career, especially at world level.
After title defenses against the likes Aleksy Kuziemski (who took the fight at just a few days notice), Tony Bellew (who had never previously stepped beyond Commonwealth level) and Tommy Karpency (who genuinely was awful) it should be perhaps no surprise to say that Hawk is average at best. Despite his record of 23-2-1 (17) the man dubbed "The Sioux Warrior" is not expected to be a real challenge and with good reason.
Hawk has been a professional since 2004 (a year longer than Cleverly) started his career well running up 13 straight wins 11 by TKO as he fought at Cruiserweight. Sadly for Hawk (and those thinking he may be a big puncher) these wins were against real scrubs in Washington and Idaho and when he faced semi-decent fighter, Ed Perry, Hawk could only muster up a draw.
Just 2 years after drawing with Ed Perry, Hawk would suffer his first professional loss as Cruiserweight Matt Godfrey clearly defeated him over 10 rounds in arguably Hawk's biggest fight to date. This loss saw Hawk falling to 18-1-1 (16), a record still befitting that of a puncher, though he was still with out a recognisable victory on his record, in fact it wasn't until 2010 that Hawk got his first noteworthy win as he took a victory over former world title contender Rubin Williams. The victory over Williams was followed by Hawk's most notable victory, a decision win over Otis Griffin, sadly however this did come against a very faded fighter and it did also see Hawk getting knocked down and really struggling to the decision.
Since defeating Griffin Hawk as beaten Henry "Sugar Poo" Buchanan (via a 10 round decision) and lost to to the quick Colombian Eleider Alvarez (who himself would have been a more acceptable challenger than Hawk). Alvarez, at the time taking part in just his 9th professional bout, really dominated Hawk, winning 11 of the 12 rounds on 2 of the 3 cards (and winning 10 rounds on the final card). Worryingly the Alvarez fight was actually the most recent fight of Hawk's career taking place just 5 months ago.
For Cleverly this is little more than a chance to make a name in the US. Sadly he doesn't have the ability, or the power to make a big splash, though hopefully a decent performance will help him land fights with the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson or Tavoris Cloud, all of which I think could beat him. Anything less than scorecards of 117-111 should be seen as a failure by Clverly who really needs to either a stoppage or a white wash for this not to have been a real waste of time.
Prediction: Cleverly UD
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