Comments Thread For: Cleverly: Karpency, Toughest Distance Foe of My Career
Nathan Cleverly praised the toughness of Tommy Karpency after his emphatic successful WBO light-heavyweight title defence against the American at his homecoming in Cardiff.
Interesting to hear Nathan talk about Karpency's power - i watched him fight Murat and Murat struggled a fair but with him.
You'd think Bellew or McIntosh who Froch's sparred and said are very big punchers.
Also interesting to hear Froch say that the hardest he'd ever been hit was bu Robin Reed - after all the guys Froch's been in with - just goes to show its not always the guys that have the biggest reputation that hit the hardest.
This is the same Murat that Cleverly beat - the same Murat that beat Campillio who recently (ahem) beat, I mean lost to Cloud.
That is the same Cloud that beat Johnson - who gave Froch a tough fight.
I thought Nathan showed a lot of improvement tonight, he's getting better and learning as for a while he seemed bloody minded to not improve on his faults.
He closed the ring down far better, movement and defence was a lot better, he made a concerted effort with his head movement and gloves straight back up to his head after throwing shots - gone was the leaving his chin in the air and throwing wildly without any thought for what is coming back.
He's learning and improving - I'd say another defence or a Shumenov, then Cloud, then take stock and reassess again.
But, a lot of improvements and you can see his working becoming a better fighter in the gym.
Keep working on the footwork and defence - counter punching too and inside game - learn the tricks and how to be crafty as they'll do to you.
Froch got taken apart by Ward because he didn't have an inside game and never worked on it in the gym - Ward spent hours on just inside fighting with sparring partners.
Still too green and improvements needed for Hopkins, Dawson etc but he'd come on in many areas last night so well done!
One thing - stand back and give yourself more space - it's been mentioned on 606v2 - gets too close up and smothers his work, taking the full extension out of punches and snap.
Nathan goes to the body - fantastically.
Find the range - don't get so close up - if he'd have done that at critical times , I think he would have stopped Karpency.
Why is Cleverly so unwilling to give Bellew any credit? Clearly Bellew gave him a MUCH harder fight than Karpency did. Last night's fight was terrible, Karpency was just not interested and confessed to his own corner after four or five rounds that he was exhausted. Bellew hit much harder than Karpency and was clearly tougher, and his fight with Clev could easily have been called a draw. But it doesn't seem that Cleverly is remotely interested in a rematch. He should have stopped Karpency, and I hope they actually get Hopkins because X would box circles around him.
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