Cleverly vs. Nurse Karpency (Spoilers)

First analysis I have is that Karpencys head looks too big for his body.

So far this seems like a bit of a stinker, once Steffan comes on though I'm sure it'll be Hagler Hearns style action when he was at ringside.

Cleverly just doesn't seem to have power.

Some positives at least:

Cleverly looks excellent in cutting off the ring well...

Though it doesn't look like the Nurse wants to even be there!

Frank Warren should be ashamed of himself making this match up. Totally one sided

Clevs never really had any power, what he has is fantastic conditioning and a superb work rate.

This guy is poor though, saying he's too tired after 4 rounds? I'd swap places with him right now and I've had far to many beers, would be seeing 3 of them

hampo171 wrote:Clevs never really had any power, what he has is fantastic conditioning and a superb work rate.

This guy is poor though, saying he's too tired after 4 rounds? I'd swap places with him right now and I've had far to many beers, would be seeing 3 of them

"Hit the one in the middle!"

This match up at first reminded me of Khan vs Salita... another easy paper win for a Warren fighter. But this is a stinker of a fight. Nathan isn't gaining anything from this at all.

I've seen sparring sessions better than this!

Terrible fight.

Karpency looks almost as scared as Haye did versus Wlad.

What a classic.

Karpency has decent enough footwork and a good chin. Maybe Clev might learn something.

He could just spar the guy, rather than make people watch the fight on a subscription channel. I'm just saying.

Agree Oxy. This aint what I signed up for...

I've never seen a boxer look as bored as Karpency is whilst in a ring. I thought this guy would at least try and do something.

Terry O'Connor should just stop the fight, there's nothing coming back from Karpency.

oxring wrote:Karpency has decent enough footwork and a good chin. Maybe Clev might learn something.

He could just spar the guy, rather than make people watch the fight on a subscription channel. I'm just saying.

I think Cleverly is going to learn a lot more from fighters who are willing to walk through his punches and come forward and trouble him (something Pascal or Cloud would do) rather than a guy who has the work rate of Clottey against Pacquaio.

Clev has long arms but he uses them about as much as P. Williams and I think he loses a touch of snap because of it

School Project wrote:

oxring wrote:Karpency has decent enough footwork and a good chin. Maybe Clev might learn something.

He could just spar the guy, rather than make people watch the fight on a subscription channel. I'm just saying.

I think Cleverly is going to learn a lot more from fighters who are willing to walk through his punches and come forward and trouble him (something Pascal or Cloud would do) rather than a guy who has the work rate of Clottey against Pacquaio.

You learn how to close someone down and out-manoeuvre them from people like Karpency - someone who tries to walk through him would also be useful. Pascal doesn't really walk through punches either - he likes people coming forward and then throws occasional flurries.

My point isn't whether he'll learn anything or not - Clev might be incredibly stupid and slow to learn anything - its more that he should be fighting the likes of Karpency in training. Not now.

AlexHuckerby wrote:Clev has long arms but he uses them about as much as P. Williams and I think he loses a touch of snap because of it

I was having this conversation with a mate earlier... just like Williams, Cleverly is lanky for the weight, smothering his opponents does no good on the inside, he would be found out from a stockier fighter like Pascal (short hard hooks and uppercuts).

Cleverly has the physical attributes to throw quick strong jabs and nice hard straights (like he's doing in the 12th).

Can't blame Cleverly for this performance though, he's won every round and essentially hasn't looked bad in doing so.

Totally agree SP... All in all a boring formality.

A Welsh Frank Warren fighter beats an overmatched opponent for the WBO Title. Its 10 years ago MY TIME MACHINE WORKS!

To be fair to Clev even the likes of Pac struggle when the opp. is just trying to survive.

oxring wrote:

School Project wrote:

oxring wrote:Karpency has decent enough footwork and a good chin. Maybe Clev might learn something.

He could just spar the guy, rather than make people watch the fight on a subscription channel. I'm just saying.

I think Cleverly is going to learn a lot more from fighters who are willing to walk through his punches and come forward and trouble him (something Pascal or Cloud would do) rather than a guy who has the work rate of Clottey against Pacquaio.

You learn how to close someone down and out-manoeuvre them from people like Karpency - someone who tries to walk through him would also be useful. Pascal doesn't really walk through punches either - he likes people coming forward and then throws occasional flurries.

My point isn't whether he'll learn anything or not - Clev might be incredibly stupid and slow to learn anything - its more that he should be fighting the likes of Karpency in training. Not now.

Completely agree with you - Cleverly already looked good in closing the ring down and letting his shots go and I agree that this should have been a sparring contest.

I just fear that Cleverly is going to go down the same route as Calzaghe - "I fought people who's names I couldn't pronounce in Cardiff for years". It's going to sound familiar unless the competition gets a little better.

Warren is now convinced that Cleverley cannot live with any one better than this type of no hoper, so expect more of the same in the future

The fights were ok. Just nice to watch some live boxing for a change. Great seats. Funny when my brother kicked over my cider and I had 3 personal cleaners come over. I made him buy me another one ofcourse. Was chatting to Nicky Piper in the foyer. He is a top bloke fair do. Said Clev gotta step it up. Anyway im off out now to watch Cardiff City in the Carling Cup final

Regards

If you check the BBC blog you'd think this was a close fight! Typical beeb, no wonder they lost all coverage of boxing! Anyway, there's no reason why Clev can't beat the likes of Shumenov or Cloud as he's a good boxer with a a hell of an engine and workrate and those guys are not that good. He just has to forget about ever knocking out or stopping anyone half decent because he has no power.

alma wrote:Cleverly is living in calzaghe's shadow for me. Joe fought some rubbish but at least he had beaten eubank by this stage and he would never have gone the distance with a part time nurse

True. He got rid of a reality TV star in three rounds

Yeah. That was the beginning of the end for Jade Goody.

Still can't believe that Clev thinks he's good enough to face the big names at 175...those guys would tear him apart.

He's got a fantastic work-rate and punch out put but there's no power behind any of his shots. The big names would walk through them.

Can't believe the guy thinks Froch ran from him. Froch would walk through those punches from Cleverly and leave him on his backside.

Not sure what all the fuss is about. Personally I can't wait for all the calling out of Hopkins, Dawson, Froch etc, the subsequent excuses as to why no fights were made and then an non ambitious east european arriving again in a few months.

Bring it on I say. Yay.

KingMonkey wrote:Not sure what all the fuss is about. Personally I can't wait for all the calling out of Hopkins, Dawson, Froch etc, the subsequent excuses as to why no fights were made and then an non ambitious east european arriving again in a few months.

Bring it on I say. Yay.

It already has....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/feb/26/nathan-cleverly-hopkins-tommy-karpency

How can he say karpency is his hardest opponent to date when bellew almost beat him. This guy couldn't punch, doesn't have a great workload, no desire, looked like a SMW and was knocked out by Murat.

Cleverly can't defend this choice of opponent and calling out Hopkins on back of that, dream on son. He needs to step up and under warren he won't.

Thought he lost a UD to Murat?

I'd love to go and watch some boxing at the Albert Hall but if Clev lines up another of these bums then I'm afraid to say I'm out. Minimum fifty sheets to watch a series of virtual non contests.....? Nah, you can poke that Mr Warren.

TopHat24/7 wrote:Thought he lost a UD to Murat?

Yea sorry I meant knocked down

I thought he said he hit harder than anyone he'd fought so far? Appologies if he did say he was the hardest opponent to date as that simply isn't true.

Was on twitter during the fight, Derry Matthews and Tony Bellew where giving Cleverly a right slagging go on about how Bellew would have knocked him out inside 10 seconds etc

From the article

"Tommy is probably the toughest [fighter I have faced]," Cleverly said. "He's got a good punch and knows his way round the ring. So I'm pleased with the win." Perhaps, but Hopkins is unlikely to be quaking in his boots.

Oh dear. I don't think he really believes that, probably knows it was a complete mismatch and is trying to justify it.

The only reason I can think that they would like at Hopkins is because of the Calzaghe type work rate. Hopkins is always going to tire, but he is now where near ready for that test. Travis Cloud would be a good test, the guys lucky to still be champion.

Cloud would walk through clev. Cloud is one dimensional and canbe out boxed, buthe hits very hard and is very big. Cleverly may be a better opponent than campillo, but campillo is a better pure boxer. He is a tricky southpaw whereas cle is a pressure fighter. If cloud gets in a war with Nathan he will win, an I doubt cleverly has the skills to outbox cloud like campillo could

There are plenty of respectable tier 2 fighters Clev could be fighting before challenging B-Hop, Cloud, Dawson etc.

As plenty have said before, you have the likes of Shumenov, Campillo, Sukhotsky etc who would actually look good on his CV and do a better job of setting him up for a big one than Nurse Karpency.

That was some of the biggest load of Poopie i've ever had the displeasure to watch, we are hearing he's fighting the winner of Dawson Hopkins but has anyone let them know. I doubt it.

Oh ladies do stop squawking!

He's got the beating of Cloud and Shumenov so long as he utilises his boxing skills and his punch output. If he goes wading in looking to fight these guys up close like he does against his B/c level opponents he's going to lose. There's nothing special about Cloud, and nothing at all special about Shumenov either. Jean Claude Pascal is beatable as he only does 4 rounds of boxing. Cleverly would run rings around him for a comfortable UD. Hopkins is gonna be too old at some point. The only guy with the skills and power that would beat him is Dawson. Cleverly can beat all the rest if he boxes properly.

I don't think there's an issue with what Clev 'could' do Super D. He just needs to a) back up his talent ASAP with a proper fight, not another joke like Saturday; and b) actually defeat some tier 2 fighters before he starts clamouring about the divisional big dogs who wouldn't look twice at him right now.

Well he was always on a hiding after this fight, the next fight needs to be that Dmitry Sukhotsky guy whose not a big name but a stern test who battered around Brahmer but lost and stopped Mohammedi. If he takes that one and wins then he's back on track I reckon. Still people will complain though as he's not a name, but definitely a tough opponent.

I think only the armchair/casual fans might complain. I think that's exactly the sort of fight he should be going for.

I don't see what it is in Cleverly that gets people talking about him in the ring with the top light heavyweights. As has been said before he needs to utilise his reach and get a trainer who can teach him to box from the outside, y'know, like a boxer.

I agree that he should be tested against someone who comes at him, but I'm not sure there's a light heavyweight active who could stand and trade with Tavoris and win. As it is I think Cloud would take Cleverly out. One dimensional though he is, he sure likes a fight.

Who is Cleverly's best opponent?

Best he's fought or best he could fight JBW? I think Murat is the best on his CV and Sukhotsky or Shumenov the best he could fight next.

I meant best he's fought.

The difference between the likes of Murat and Shumenov is massive. It's the right time for Cleverly to start moving up, but going from a Karpency to a Shumenov too quickly would be foolish in my opinion.

There is talk of Warren wanting him in action again at the end of April at the Albert Hall, hilst I am a fan of modern fighters fighting more regularly you do have to wonder if we are going to be served up quantity over quality.

At the moment he doesn't offer anything to the likes of Pascal, Dawson, Hopkins and Cloud, needs to step up and beat someone like Diaconu, Campillo or Shumenov, Sukhotsky or Mack wouldn't be terrible opponents either. His current level of both performance and opposition doesn't leave me with much confidence that he'll either face them or beat them.

It wasnt a great performance by Clev. Think he must have been trying to copy the Wales rugby team that day and beat mediocre opposition the hard way. I passed Karpency on the way in. He had his full entourage of 4 people

Nah Karpencys a good bloke but Clev needs to fight someone much better next time. Another night in Cardiff wouldnt go a miss

Did Clev have the referee on his side as well then?

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Did Clev have the referee on his side as well then?

Probably. We are a nation of cheats and never win anything fair and square

You enjoying that bitterness on toast by the way?

Hard to swallow a defeat when the referee was such a determining factor, realise how the irish feel now.

I was hoping Clev was gonna do a Scott Williams and pull something out of the bag later on but it didnt happen. He got the W though. Just like Wales did

Just watched the fight fully, terrible opponent, i'm a Cleverly fan but fighting B/C level fighters like this won't do him no good. He said Karpency hit hard and was his toughest fight, Bellew gave him a 10 times harder fight, Nathan would probably of learnt more punching an heavy bag in the gym for 12 rounds, respect to Karpency for hanging in there, but he definitely wasn't world level.

B/C?? you're being generous!!