Nathan Cleverly
Nathan Cleverly (born 17 February 1987 in Caerphilly, Wales ) is a British professional boxer and former world champion of the WBO light heavyweight.
As an amateur boxer, he had a record of 32 wins with only four defeats. His greatest success was about winning the gold medal in the 4 Nation Championships, which was held between the best boxers from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland.
Cleverly punched from the beginning to rise quickly in the rankings against strong opponents. His first professional fight, he completed on 23 July 2005 as compared to experienced in 100 professional fights Ernie Smith and won on points. In his second fight, he won also on points against the Midlands Champion Darren Gethin. On 14 October 2006, he won by technical knockout in round 5 against the undefeated, later British champion Tony Quigley. On July 21, 2007 followed by a knockout win in round 6 on the multiple - champion Ghana Ayitey Powers.
On 10 October 2008, he won the Commonwealth championship title by a unanimous points victory against former WBU World Champion Tony Oakey and defended the title three times by Ko against Douglas Otieno, Samson Onyango and Billy Boyle. On 18 July 2009, he boxed against the undefeated, eventual champion Danny McIntosh to the additional title of British champion, winning by technical knockout in round 7 Then he defended his two titles still against Courtney Fry.
On February 13, 2010, he became the new European champion of the EBU; he defeated the Italians in London Antonio Brancalion technical knockout in the 5th round. On 18 September, he defeated in a title eliminator for the chance to win the WBO world title, the Intercontinental champion of the WBO, Karo Murat by the Technical Co in round 10 for Murat, this meant the first defeat of his professional career ( 22-0 ). On 11 December 2010, he secured the Interim WBO World Championship by unanimous points victory against Najib Mohammedi and became the mandatory challenger of the reigning WBO titlist Juergen Braehmer.
Since Brähmer two scheduled by the WBO mandatory dates are not perceived due to alleged illness and training injuries, him the world title was revoked and Cleverly appointed on 19 May 2011 as the new WBO heavyweight champion. His first title defense on May 21, he won by technical knockout in the fourth round against Poland Aleksy Kuziemski. On October 15, he played his second title defense against the undefeated Commonwealth champion Tony Bellew ( 16-0 ) and won on points.
On February 25, 2012, he defended the title in Wales by unanimous points victory over American Tommy Karpency ( 21-2 ), and on November 10, 2012 by TKO against Shawn Hawk ( 23-2 ). On April 20, 2013, won by unanimous decision against Robin Krasniqi ( 39-2 ).
Already on August 17, 2013 he played his next title defense against the Russians Sergei Kovalev ( 21-0 ). This Cleverly had been in the third round twice to the ground and was in the fourth round hit hard by the referee taken out of the fight. He suffered so that the first loss of his professional career and lost his WBO title, which he had previously held for two years and five defended.