Nathen Cleverly must beat Robin Krasniqi convincingly if he wants to fight Bernard Hopkins - Jeff Powell
The thinking man’s boxer knuckles down to the hard old business of prize-fighting on Saturday night.
Nathan Cleverly is a mathematics graduate from Cardiff but the only numbers which matter to him now are how the judges score his world championship fights and how much he might earn from his career in the ring if those calculations keep coming out in his favour.
Cleverly defends his WBO title against Serbia’s Robin Krasniqi at Wembley on Saturday night.
Up for the challenge: Nathan Cleverly will defend his WBO Light-heavyweight title against Robin Krasniqi at Wembley Ready for war: Cleverly will defend his title at WembleyGoing through the motions: Cleverly during a work out ahead of his fight More from Jeff Powell... JEFF POWELL: Vorsprung durch technique (and speed, strength, fitness) - how the German super-athlete came to rule the football world... but what can Rooney and Co learn? 30/05/13 JEFF POWELL: Brutal Froch-Kessler fight has given a face-lift to the battered image of this hard old game 27/05/13 Jeff Powell's ten greatest British battlers... but where does Froch rank on the list? 26/05/13 Warhorse Froch eyes another charge at King Ward after heroic victory over Kessler 26/05/13 Best of British: Froch-Kessler could become one of the best - but what were the others? 24/05/13 Bring on the Gladiators - Froch v Kessler II could go down as one of the greatest fights in boxing history 24/05/13 Jeff Powell on Friday: Scholes and Co bowed out in typically understated fashion (unlike you-know-who), the bland new England shirt will cost parents a fortune... and City owners will have a conflict of interests in New York 23/05/13 Jeff Powell: Forget Beckham's millions, Manny and Money Mayweather show the hard old game is still a real box-office hit 20/05/13 Jeff Powell: Beckham transformed a reasonable talent into immense wealth and fame... for that, I have nothing but admiration 16/05/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE
He does so reminding himself that nothing less than absolute concentration on bouts like this will carry him onwards and upwards to the mega-fights against the iconic likes of Bernard Hopkins, which can unify the world championship and cement his fortune.
‘I must be consistently at my best now,’ says Cleverly. ‘There may be bigger fights down the road but this is a tough opponent and I cannot afford to give him anything less than my full attention.’
Nor can British boxing.
The number of world titles held by home fighters always tends to fluctuate but that position is in serious need of shoring up right now.
Apart from Cleverly, only Carl Froch and Ricky Burns are recognised world champions and they both face stiff challenges in the coming weeks.
Burns goes home to Scotland on May 11 to confront Jose Gonzalez, the aggressive, hard-hitting mandatory challenger for his WBO lightweight belt.
Froch shares the big stage of London’s 02 Arena on May 25 with Danish warrior Mikkel Kessler needing revenge against one of the two men who have beaten him if he is to retain his WBC super-middleweight title.
Cleverly’s task may not appear to be quite so arduous but Krasniqi is a tough nut capable of further reducing Britain’s standing in the world championship ranks if he is taken lightly.
Not for nothing is he, too, a mandatory challenger. Cleverly, assuming he wins on Saturday, is likely to face another such obligation this summer before raising his sights to Hopkins or Chad Dawson.
Hopkins also faces a mandatory defence. The oldest world champion is expected to meet Karo Murat in New York but has indicated his willingness thereafter to travel to Cardiff, where he and Hopkins would sell out the Millennium Stadium.
So may they both keep winning.
Cleverly is not alone with points to prove on Frank Warren’s Wembley bill.
Dereck Chisora is relicensed now following the brawl with David Haye which disgraced both men and shamed this country. He has the chance on Saturday against Hector Avila to not only line up a world heavyweight title eliminator against David Price but to prove that he is a reformed character.
Scott Harrison, Scotland’s former world lightweight champion, makes yet another comeback from scandal and prison to challenge undefeated prospect Liam Walsh for his European title.
Back in the ring: Dereck Chisora will return to action on SaturdayThis may be the troubled Harrison’s last chance for redemption inside as well as outside the ring.
Cleverly-Krasniqi will be live Saturday night on BoxNation via Sky Ch. 437 and Virgin Ch. 546.
Rendall Munroe is by no means the first boxer in history to be thrown on to the scrap-heap but the manner in which it has happened to him really is unsavoury.
Munroe is being forced back into the ring because a refuse clearance company in Leicester are refusing to re-hire him.
This is the man who gave pride to honest working men everywhere in their unfashionable jobs. He did so as boxing’s Bin Man.
Munroe carried that nickname to European and Commonwealth super-bantamweight titles - and to within an heroic points defeat in Japan of the world championship.
On the scrap heap: Rendall Munroe in action with Scott Quigg last yearHe announced his retirement following defeat by the up-and-coming Scott Quigg but has announced his comeback after being told he would not be given his old job back.
He says; ‘I’ve stayed fit and have felt sharp in training. I feel quite good about boxing again but I have to tell the truth. If they had let me go back to working on the bins I wouldn’t be doing this.’
That is as sad as it is incomprehensible and in this day and age no man should have to go back to boxing just to eke out a living.
Munroe adds: ‘I always enjoyed being a bin-man, being part of the team and getting out in the early-morning fresh air and I treated it as a useful form of exercise. But now the company are saying they won’t have me back because I had an attitude problem,’
Most appropriately, he says; ‘That’s rubbish.’
Down and out: Munroe sinks to one knee for the final time during his defeat against QuiggMost definitely, as someone who went out with him on one of his dawn rounds for a feature for the Mail, I can confirm it really is rubbish.
Many of the householders whose dustbins he regularly emptied came out to greet him despite the early hour and wish him well in his fights. He met them with a smile and was modest to the point of being humble.
He was clearly highly popular with the regular team on his truck, one or two of whom dug into their savings to follow his exploits in the ring home and abroad.
And they confirmed that he rarely missed a day’s work, taking his holidays when he needed to train for a big fight.
To the people of Leicester he is something of a folk hero. No doubt they will turn out in force shortly when he laces up the gloves yet again.
Matthew Macklin, Birmingham’s fighting Irishman, never ducks anyone and reports himself delighted with the chance to challenge the most feared knock-out merchant in the middleweight division.
Macklin challenges world title-holder Gennady Golovkin at the Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut on June 29.
The Kazakh has flattened 23 of his opponents in a perfect 26 win record but Macklin is unabashed.
This will be Macklin’s third world title challenge. First came the highly controversial points decision against him when many of us deemed him to have beaten Felix Sturm in Germany. Then there was the late knockout by the marvellous Sergio Martinez after he put in a heroic effort and led early in the fight.
Up for the challenge: Matthew Macklin is set to face Gennady Golovkin in JuneBut since then he has blown away respected former world champion Joachim Alcine in less than a round.
Meanwhile, Martin Murray challenges the wonderful WBC champion Martinez in Buenos Aires on April 27.
In the event – admittedly unlikely – of Macklin and Murray both winning, the stage would be set for huge all-British unification fight in the classic middleweight tradition.
The projected war between Nonito Donaire and Guillermo Rigondeaux on Saturday night turned into a master-class in boxing by the latter.
Rigondeaux, Cuba’s two-time Olympic champion, brought the vast experience of more than 400 amateur bouts to bear on Donaire, the presumed Filipino heir apparent to the great Manny Pacquiao.
On the front foot: Guillermo Rigondeaux, right, lands a punch on Nonito DonaireMaster-class: Rigondeaux punches Donaire
In only his 12th professional fight since escaping the clutches of the Castro regime, Rigondeaux put on a performance in New York’s Radio City Music Hall which might have been choreographed for the Rockettes dancing troupe who normally occupy that stage.
The official scores of 114-113, 115-112 and 116-111 did not truly reflect Rigondeaux’s superiority as he unified the WBA and WBO world super-bantamweight title. Apart from being knocked down in the tenth, he appeared to win almost every other round.
Britain’s Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton, who have world championship ambitions in that division, beware. Donaire had won his preceding 30 fights and they would be unwise to rush in Rigondeaux’s direction.
More... Brook's hopes of world title shot in limbo as injury forces him out of Alexander bout Chisora vows to beat Argentine opponent in tribute to 'powerful' Thatcher Rigondeaux batters Donaire to earn WBO super bantamweight belt in New York Broner signs to fight Malignaggi in June, leaving unification showdown with Burns hanging in the balance
