By Ian S Palmer
Light heavyweight Nathan Cleverly of Wales will be squaring off against Poland’s Andrzej Fonfara this Friday, October 16th at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. Since Fonfara now resides in the area, this will more or less be a home fight for him. Fonfara is the reigning WBC International Champion who has lost just once in the past seven years and that came at the hands of WBC Champion Adonis Stevenson. Cleverly is a former WBO champion who was dethroned by Sergey Kovalev. This 12-round bout is part of the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) series and can be seen live in North America on the Spike network. Fans in the UK can catch the action on Sky Sports.
The 27-year-old Fonfara enters the ring with a record of 27-3 with 16 Kos and looked very impressive in his last outing when he stopped Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The 28-year-old Cleverly enters the fight with a mark of 29-2 with 15 Kos and his other career loss came against rival Tony Bellew in November of last year. This is a quality matchup for fans and it looks like Cleverly’s taking a bit of a risk by taking Fonfara on in his backyard. The figured he might have opted to challenge Juergen Braehmer for his WBA belt instead. Cleverly will need to win this fight though if he hopes for a rematch with Kovalev or a shot at Stevenson or Braehmer.
Cleverly has dropped back down to light heavyweight after taking on Bellew in a rematch at the cruiserweight division. His last bout was a first-round stoppage over Tomas Man in May. However, Fonfara looked much more impressive when he forced Chavez Jr to quit in his corner after the ninth round. Fonfara has a lot to gain in this bout too as he’s looking for a rematch with Stevenson after dropping a decision to him in May. Fonfara’s other loss was by second-round TKO to Derrick Findley in 2008 as a middleweight.
Cleverly’s a good boxer and he’ll use movement to make sure he doesn’t stand in front of Fonfara the way Chavez did. He needs to land crisp, hard shots and get out of the way when Fonfara decides to return the fire. Fonfara isn’t really a slugger either, but a brawl would suit him better than the Welshman. Cleverly stands just over 6-feet-1-inch tall and has a 74-inch reach. He turned pro in 2005 and has boxed 194 rounds since then. He’s not a huge puncher as his knockout ratio stands at 48 per cent.
Fonfara has a one-inch height advantage and a two-inch edge in reach. His knockout percentage is 54 per cent and he has 148 rounds under his belt since turning pro in 2006. Fonfara has faced the better opponents during his career so also has the slight edge in experience because of it. It’s quite possible that Cleverly has bitten off a little more than he can chew here, but he has a chance if he can utilize his superior boxing skills for all 12 rounds and his chin and body stand up to Fonfara’s power shots.
Prediction
Fonfara may not have the best chin around either, but Cleverly’s not a power puncher. The Welshman will basically need to box his way to victory here in hostile territory. It may be a bit too much to pull off though and fans should see Fonfara retain his international title by a close decision or late stoppage.
