Nathan Cleverlys Opponent Announced.

Sean Corbin from Guyana. Corbin has a 17-4 record, and all his defeats have been by stoppage. He fought Karo Murat in 2010 who stopped him in two rounds.

Did anyone expect anything different?

Teak tough Guyanain.

Disappointing but no, not surprising. Appreciate that Cleverly is rebuilding his confidence and starting afresh but think he could have made a bit more a statement of intent than this.

I know there are a lot of people who think that since losing to Kovalev, Cleverly really seems to have fallen badly out of love with the sport and is giving the impression of a man who doesn't really want to be doing this boxing lark anymore, and this kind of opponent is only going to fuel that fire.

And I thought Cleverly was World Class.

Tune to the podcast to hear my thoughts on this.....you're gonna love them Steffan

Well at least Warren cant be blamed for this one.

Cleverly......I remember a forgettable fighter with that name once..

They will just make Clev v Bellew two after this. I fancy Bellew next time round. Clev seems to have lost his love for the sport, and years of fighting turkeys have ruined what talent he had.

Id like to see Cleverly against Bellew or Macarinelli.

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Tune to the podcast to hear my thoughts on this.....you're gonna love them Steffan

Disgraceful choice of opponent if you ask me. Disappointed in Clev and I cant defend him on this one

Not really bothered what a priick like you thinks anyway mind

Really poor opponent, believed Hearn would have him in a semi challenging fight, however looking at it from another perspective, Nathan needs some confidence as it was totally shattered in his last fight, plus its his first fight at the weight, perhaps throwing him in with a genuine threat shouldn't be until next fight. Play it safe with him and see what happens here, but the next fight HAS to be somewhat of a challenge.

I have only been on this forum for a shot period of time, and there is obviously some knowledgable posters who know there stuff, but Alex/Chris i cant go along with this needing to regain his confidence lark.

I wonder when boxers will catch up with the rest of the sporting world with the employment of sports psychologists, for one loss to drain someone of so much of the confidence that he is fighting this bum is plainly ridiculous.

Its not just him, its the general notion that people need such confidence builders, are they not having hard sparring? do all his/there previous however many fights leave no ingrained confidence? is this a congruent decision between Hearn/Cleverly?

The worst thing about this/these fights are the post fight interviews, "got a bit of ring rust out of my system" "onto bigger and better things" (what beating up cardboard cut outs of blind people?) There is going to be a mention of Bellew, as if they are star-crossed lovers.
Things just don't add up for this Maths genius, i now think even his surname his made up.

rant finished.

soy_frank_cappuccino wrote:I have only been on this forum for a shot period of time, and there is obviously some knowledgable posters who know there stuff, but Alex/Chris i cant go along with this needing to regain his confidence lark.

I wonder when boxers will catch up with the rest of the sporting world with the employment of sports psychologists, for one loss to drain someone of so much of the confidence that he is fighting this bum is plainly ridiculous.

Its not just him, its the general notion that people need such confidence builders, are they not having hard sparring? do all his/there previous however many fights leave no ingrained confidence? is this a congruent decision between Hearn/Cleverly?

The worst thing about this/these fights are the post fight interviews, "got a bit of ring rust out of my system" "onto bigger and better things" (what beating up cardboard cut outs of blind people?) There is going to be a mention of Bellew, as if they are star-crossed lovers.
Things just don't add up for this Maths genius, i now think even his surname his made up.

rant finished.

I agree to an extent, but boxing is such a tough business. It's all well and good for Tennis players, for example, to regain confidence and find rhythm by taking on, and getting beaten by, decent level opposition. However, I fully understand a boxer's desire to put an absolute beating, like the one Kovalev dealt to Cleverly, behind him. If Cleverly were to get straight back in the ring with a decent operator, and lose, his career would be in tatters, and any chance of a decent money fight with Bellew would be gone.

I don't think it's unreasonable for Cleverly to want to get back in the ring for a tune-up before he takes on Bellew, or another ranked opponent.

This of course presupposes that Cleverly will take on Bellew, or another ranked opponent, in the near future.

... Don't think frank's going to like 'tune-up' any more than 'confidence builder'.

I can see where you're coming from frank. I don't think thrashing a stiff to build your confidence up, really does build your confidence up. Bit like a football team going unbeaten on their pre-season tour of Lichtenstein, then going to Stamford bridge on the first day of the season.

There's some middle ground, here I think. All sport is largely mental, confidence is everything and sparring will only tell you so much. The ideal opponent back is a competent, probably light hitting opponent who will make him work and get 'some rounds under his belt (that's for you frank) at his new weight. Someone a bit better than this guy (ie someone who could maybe make the third bell against Murat)... But not too good!

Boxing is slightly different from other sports Frank - getting punched in the face is a hell of a lot more of an impact than letting in goals or not winning tournaments because someone hit the ball harder/father than you could.

Confidence is a real problem for some boxers. You get those with a low fortitude, but those who have high natural confidence. if you're treated like Clev was by Warren, as a genuine world class boxer, you're seen by casuals as the hope of your nation after Calzaghe and then you're dragged back to earth with a bump, you read things about yourself, how you were a paper champion, your opponents were utter nobodies etc - all that with the desire to get back in the ring and be reminded by a jab, a hook that this happened....its really hard to change that.

Love you too Steffan xxxxx

a leopard never changes his spots, and it looks like cleverly will do exactly the same as he did at light heavyweight. im sure in the coming months there will be talks of title fights (huck, lebedev and hernandez will all be mentioned) but this time next year his people will be saying the same thing and cleverly will be fighting chumps.

He has been out of the ring a long time. As long as there isn't long between this and the next fight then I'm not overly concerned. We need to see if he has the hunger left first, because if he hasn't then this oisn't the sport to go in with someone that can do him serious damage.

did he ever have the hunger?

eddyfightfan wrote:did he ever have the hunger?

I think he did before he won the title, he came up through the ranks and signed to fight Braehmer. It was after he won the belt that things went south.