Nathan Cleverly.

He gets a lot of stick on here and rightly so for some of his opposition. I'm not sure how much stick he can get for fighting Robin Krasniqi though, this isn't a voluntary defence it is a mandatory. Some complained a year or so ago when he tried to avoid fighting his mandatory challenger, however it appears he is going to have to face another mandatory after the Krasniqi defence.

Juergen Braehmer faces Eduard Gutknecht for the European title, which is also the WBO final eliminator. If Braehmer wins tonight, and then Cleverly goes on to do a number on him will he get some sort of credit? Or does Cleverly have to go in with Travis Cloud and co to get any credit from the fans?

Cleverly avoided a potentially dangerous mandatory last year (who later lost) and has then "capitulated" when there is one he (or Warren) thinks he can beat. I can still give him stick over this!

If, and it is a big if, he did fight and win against Braehmer, I would give him a huge amount of credit and say he is finally fighting to his potential. This is a boxer with talent who I want to see at his best. Not knocking over people we have never heard of.

Robin Krasniqi was the guy they tried to match Cleverly with last summer so he could dodge Shumenov (I think). So its no surprise that the Warren Boxin organisation have just happened to make Krasniqi the MANDATORY!

Cleverly has been a world champ for as bout as long, if not longer than Warrens other world champ (Burns). Burns' opposition is like Froch's in comparison to Cleverlys. I mean, how was Cleverly's last fight sactioned as a world title fight. The opponent found at about 4 seconds notice and was useless.

This is the 3rd year running that Clev claims he will fight Hopkins.....ok Nath, if you say so haha.

Hampo, if he fights anyone who has ever came close to even winning a world title I'll be impressed

I'm sorry, but I find it hard to defend Cleverly in any way. He's a world title holder with defenses yet he's actually never fought anyone particularly good.

I think we're all waiting for him to step up in terms of his opposition, which isn't something we should have to do considering he's a World Champion.

If he was still making his way in the sport I'd view him differently as l think his level of opposition for an up and coming fighter is all what l'd expect, it's the belt which gets to me.

If he were to fight and dispose of Braehmer then it's a step in the right direction but l'd like to see him fight more often and start looking to test himself.

by rights the belt should be braehmers anyway, he never lost it in the ring so the least cleverly can do is give him a shot, and i don't think you deserve credit for fighting mandatorys, its compulsory supposedly, and nathan has literally fought nobody of note, and has been campaigning for years- he won't get credit from me till he starts fighting world class opponents, not name dropping bhop and dawson and everybody else yet fight nurses.

eddyfightfan wrote:by rights the belt should be braehmers anyway, he never lost it in the ring so the least cleverly can do is give him a shot

I agree these pair should fight but its not Clevs fault Braehmer pulled out of their fight with less than a week to go

not really blaming clev, but braehmer shouldnt have to fight in a eliminator to get a shot, the thing with nathan is he hasn't had the defining fight and until he does he will be criticized by a lot of people

When I first came over Benn, Eubank were your World champions and were big news....

Now you have world champions like this guy...and no one gives a toss!!

the frustrating thing is, that after another 4 or 5 years of beating these european plodders people will start to celebrate cleverlys unbeaten streak and time span as a world champion. i couldnt beleive some of the praise he got for his performance against chesney hawk. get a bit closer to the krasniqi fight and we will start to see articles about the winner fighting dawson or hopkins popping up on the bbc