In outpointing rugged Tony Bellew over 12 bruising rounds at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on Saturday night, Nathan Cleverly took one step closer to the world stage.
In addition, Cleverly and Bellew underlined the superiority of British boxing when compared to the erratic American scene. Less than five months after causing a ruckus when he originally challenged Cleverly to a fight (a bout that was scrapped because of weight issues), Bellew was in the ring swapping punches with the man he promised to make his accountant. In America, a fight like this would take years to make, with promoters bickering, the fighters hesitant but Tweeting gibberish nonetheless, and the networks more interested in showcasing both athletes in squash matches first.
Both men immediately came out firing, exchanging hooks and vicious shots to the body in close. Bellew, a raw hard-case, seemed to be outclassed on paper, but heart and a well-timed jab kept him in the fight. Late in the second round, Bellew seemed to have Cleverly reeling, and he pursued the Welshman with both hands churning. Cleverly recovered quickly, however, and held the edge for most of the remaining rounds, though he traded shots more often than necessary.
Although Cleverly is a solid boxer from the perimeter, he showed surprising skill on the inside, where he landed thudding lefts to the body and threw hard uppercuts with either hand. By the sixth, Bellew, 16-1, looked like his legs were waterlogged, but he gamely fought back and even rallied again in the late rounds, scoring with a crack right in the 10th. His most effective weapons, however, were a whipping right uppercut to the body and a jab calculated to keep Cleverly from establishing a rhythm. Cleverly, however, clearly won the fight and can now look forward to some bigger names.
In the real world, Cleverly, 23-0, would have no problem luring Chad Dawson to the U.K., since Dawson has no fanbase whatsoever, no ratings appeal, and no pay-per-view pedigree. But Cleverly will have to play second fiddle to Jean Pascal, who can actually sell tickets in Quebec, and will likely get first dibs at Dawson.
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Boxing passed through the interdimensional gateway again when Chad Dawson was rewarded with a second-round TKO over Bernard Hopkins at the Staples Arena on Saturday night. In the second round, Hopkins, 52-6-2-1, wound up clinging to Dawson like a man holding onto a piece of driftwood in the Pacific. Dawson, who seemed to take offense at someone else trying to be dreary in the ring for a change, sent Hopkins airborne with a neat bump of the shoulder. Hopkins suffered a separation of the acromioclavicular joint when he crashed to the mat, and just like that the fight was over.
