TONIGHTS FIGHT THREAD - SPOILER ALERTS

[mobilemaster8]

First topic message reminder :

Evening gents!

Half an hour until coverage start on boxnation. Don't know the run of play in terms of fight timings but thought id create a thread for to nights action involving out two Brits Cleverley and of course Barker stateside.

Use this thread for to nights thoughts and action!!

Enjoy gents!!

[6oldenbhoy]

Shocking refereeing at the end of the third. If Cleverley is to come back, he needs to ditch his dad as a trainer. Offered nothing in the corner at all.

[Seanusarrilius]

That was an absolute beasting! Poor Clev. He was completely battered. Couldn't keep him off at all. We feared it and with good reason.

[bhb001]

It shows that he was protected. He is still young enough to come back, but he is fringe world level at best

[The Boss]

Was a really odd fight to watch. The commentators were ignoring just how out of it Clev seemed to me.

[mobilemaster8]

Wow. Props to Kovalev. I thought it was all hype, but Nathan was absolutely outclassed there and got hurt with pretty much every punch. Feel sorry for Clev, he has a great chin, but this guy can punch and he looked like a very very good boxer.

Sorry, but this guy takes the division out. Easily.

[AlexHuckerby]

Is it over?

[The Boss]

Ye 4th round KO. Should have been 3rd

[Happytravelling]

I thought Clev's early tactic of laying down a mark and trying to jab and push him back wasn't a bad one. But, once he got tagged he should have held on and moved till his head had fully cleared. Not try and front up.

[Seanusarrilius]

Clev can't ever be world class. Zero power for and easy as hell to hit. Now he has been destroyed like this, it's euro level and fringe world at best. That was simple work for Kovalev. Clev needs a new trainer for a start. His dad is less than useless

[AlexHuckerby]

Man, I wish I wasn't working so I could have watched it.

[bhb001]

Steffan is going to be gutted. Wales has still got Enzo

[hampo17]

Watching that reply of the 3rd round, McDonald should have warned Kovalev, Cleverly was clearly down and then got caught with a hard flush shot. I don't believe it made a difference but still surprised he got away without a warning.

[AlexHuckerby]

Enzo Vs. Kovalov... HAHA

[The Boss]

It was hard to see which shots landed flush and which hit fresh sir.

[bhb001]

Hopefully the comparisons with Calzaghe can stop now

[Union Cane]

0/3 for me so far in the OMPL.

I've picked Geale, so Barker will win, no need to stay up.

[Happytravelling]

I'm not sure Clev was/is all hype. I think he has been managed and handled badly. In his early career he had all the attributes. But his career has stagnated pretty much since he won the title. He should have been developed not allowed to stagnate.

One has to also point out that Murat, who Clev beat, is the mandatory to Hopkins next.... So, I don't think Clev was always a "chump".

[Pedro147]

Kovalev vs Ward at L/W perhaps?

[The Boss]

I'd agree with ya there HappyTravelling. Not someone who's going to unify but not a complete no hoper

[Pedro147]

LHW sorry

[bhb001]

I picked the Cleverly fight, but got Enzo all wrong. Got Geale for later as well

[Cast a Shadow]

Had an ominous feel to it from about halfway through the first round - you could just tell that both men knew who was the boss in there.

[mobilemaster8]

HAHAHA Union! IM the same. Picked Clev LKO McKenzie EKO and Buckland UD.

Picked Barker via UD which means Geale knocks him out in three.

Goodnight.

[Gerry SA]

No wonder Hopkins dodged Krusher.

Krusher is a beast. He'd KO Hopkins, Stevenson and Shumenov on the same night.

Cleverley vs Dawson would be a good comeback fight for both.

[WHU_Champo_League_in_7Yrs]

Not really surprised, Clev's only real good attributes is his stamina and workrate.

He's easy to hit and easy to outfox, you could tell he was too hyped up and did his usual hands down calling his opponent on when hurt and was finally in with someone who could take advantage of that

fought garbage so far and Kovalev is just several legaues above what he's use to

He can come again and can outwork some fighters but will always be a soft champion and it wont be long before he's the challenger and bellew the champ when they have a rematch

[BallchinianMuffwig]

Poor Clev but fair enough this was the most expected outcome.

Could someone please describe what actually happened in round 4? The channel I was watching the fight on stopped working between 3 and 4. Clev looked absolutely done in though on his stool- reminded me of Paul Appleby after that last knockdown VS Walsh.

[The Boss]

Looked the same to me mate. Came out for round 4 and Kocalev just picked up where he'd left off.

[Gerry SA]

Not really surprised, Clev's only real good attributes is his stamina and workrate.

He's easy to hit and easy to outfox, you could tell he was too hyped up and did his usual hands down calling his opponent on when hurt and was finally in with someone who could take advantage of that

fought garbage so far and Kovalev is just several legaues above what he's use to

He can come again and can outwork some fighters but will always be a soft champion and it wont be long before he's the challenger and bellew the champ when they have a rematch

Bellew's got no chance of beating Stevenson. And if Cleverly ever fought Bellew again, Cleverly would beat him again.

[Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn]

Well all those fights against nurses, euro bums etc may have given the impression that clevs chin was strudy.

But as Steffan will testify, I have always been a massive critic and although Clev might be a nice guy, what stuck in my throat was the fact that after beating useless opposition, he thought he had some sort of right to be involved in mega fights with Hopkins etc when he had barely proved himself against fringe world level fighters.

Telling us the Karpency was his hardest fight ever was one of the most ridiculous statements I had ever heard.

But for all I criticised, the fact he even grew a set and signed to fight Kolalev gave me a new sense of respect for him. He wasn't going to get the big fights unless he put Kolalev away and from watchin Campillo get tanked (first I'd seen Kolalev) my prediction was Clev to get beat to a pulp or a contraversial SD in Naths favour.

Well he got humiliated and that exact senario would hve happened if he had of fought Froch. I'm certain of that.

Wonder will we see a year or 2 of Karpency type fights going forward. Because judging on that, Cloud, Pascal, stevenson, hopkins all give Clev the beating he got tonight. Kolalev didn't exactly crack his jaw. More top of the head shots which scrambled Clev to the point he could barely walk in a straight line after.

I mean this wen I say it, but the only reason I'm glad clev got hammered is to show Warren that these silly defenses do absolutley nothing when it comes to taking on a genuine talent.

So are boxnation still going to charge 10er a month when they haven't got a world champ in their stable???

[88Chris05]

I really had no idea how this one was going to go at all, to the point where no result could really have surprised me. With the amount of light-punching guff Cleverly has been facing, this was always a possible outcome.

After seeing how Campillo was taken apart systematically by Fonfara last night, I was beginning to wonder if Kovalev's demolition job on him had lost some of its shine, but we're clearly looking at a very dangerous fighter here.

Hammer blow to Cleverly; he himself was under no illusion that this was the fight in which he could prove himself, and he's been man-handled. His lack of ring IQ, survival instincts and defence when he was hurt were alarming to say the least.

Warren has steered some seemingly doomed ships to relative success in the past, and at 26 there's time to do the same here, but all this talk of unifying the division, tempting ol' Bernard over to Cardiff etc has been blown out of the water.

[Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn]

Kolalev was so friggin accurate too, when Clev was tryin for move his head to avoid punches it was like Kolalev was 3 seconds ahead of him and cracking him with very hard shots.

[Guest]

The business end of the fight for those that haven't seen it yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H-vHvwYAbA

Clev showed heart at least to come out for the 4th.

[Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn]

What I did find funny was in the 3rd round Kolalev caught Clev and clev done this little shake and egged him on as if he wasn't hurt....then the next punch Kolalev caught him with blew him straight onto his face on the canvas haha. Love when that happens to fighters who act clever

[mobilemaster8]

Should have been stopped in the third. Poopie refereeing.

[hampo17]

Kovalev should have been warned in the 3rd as well MM.

[Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn]

A warnin woukdnt have have made a blind bit of difference. Clev was finished

[hampo17]

I agree it wouldn't, but still, he gave Clev a decent smack while he was down.

[ONETWOFOREVER]

Clev lost tonight guys.

Just read about it in the Daily Mail 4th round ko.

Clev lost

[milkyboy]

It seemed like he was ducking into punches that were catching him on the back of the head. Hard to see which punches did the damage in the fourth... Couldn't really see a hard shot, but he could barely get back to his corner.

Only the third time I've seen kovalev, one of those fighters who doesn't look anything special but he sure makes his opponents look bad... In a different style but similar manner to ggg... And clearly he hits like absynthe.

[ONETWOFOREVER]

Kovalev v Steverson

[milkyboy]

Clev lost tonight guys.

Just read about it in the Daily Mail 4th round ko.

Clev lost

In the daily mail? Must be true then. Great spinning backfist from kovalev.

[AlexHuckerby]

The business end of the fight for those that haven't seen it yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H-vHvwYAbA

Clev showed heart at least to come out for the 4th.

Thanks mate, missed it due to work, hopefully we gain a champ in Barker next though!!

[Guest]

The business end of the fight for those that haven't seen it yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H-vHvwYAbA

Clev showed heart at least to come out for the 4th.

Thanks mate, missed it due to work, hopefully we gain a champ in Barker next though!!

No problem buddy  

[Happytravelling]

He should have got a warning for the blow (I thought it was two at the time but on replay the second was a glancing blow) but, as onetwo says, Clev's lack of "ring smarts" was disturbing. Perhaps he believed his own hype.

Clev's fight plan should have always been to take Kovalev beyond 4 (something like 90% of his KO's were before the 4th round) and as far into the fight as possible before seeing how much stamina he had. Trying to out man him when tagged was just suicide.

I've not checked but, I think they said on Boxnation that Kovalev hadn't been beyond 8 rounds?

I'm going to be controvertial. Bellew's defence is much better and I think he would take him into the later rounds and maybe beat him.

[Seanusarrilius]

forget the warnings. Clev was found out tonight. Plain and simple. I hope he was well paid, but it was hardly that sort of event

[hampo17]

Can't agree with you about Bellew about happytravelling, he'd probably get stopped in similar fashion. Too happy to get involved in a brawl.

[AlexHuckerby]

Think Bellews reigned that in a little and trying to box smarter recently

[AlexHuckerby]

Then again , I don't reckon hes too smart, so hey ho

[Seanusarrilius]

Bellew would go the same way as Clev. Kovalev v Stevenson would be explosive.

[Happytravelling]

I'm not so sure. Bellew may not be too smart but I think he will be smart enough not to go toe to toe with Kovalev till after the 4-8th rounds, like Clev the Maths grad did.

Kovalev has still not been beyond 8 and only 3 of his fights have gone beyound 4.

Like all KO merchants, you have to take him out of his comfort zone. Clev failed abysmally.

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