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Fight Night talking points
- Updated: October 2, 2016
Nathan Cleverly is a two-time world champion and Joseph Parker continues to strike fear, but what else did we learn from the weekend action?
Clev climbs the mountain
It wasn’t the way he would have imagined it in his wildest dreams, but Nathan Cleverly has become a two-time world light-heavyweight champion. He may have been two rounds behind Juergen Braehmer on all three scorecards at the halfway stage of their clash in Germany but that should not detract from his achievement nor from the toughness he had already showed in the bout.
The home fighter had landed the cleaner shots early on and his decision to pull out with an elbow problem before the seventh round came as a shock to just about everyone in Neubrandenburg. Credit is due to the new WBA light-heavyweight king regardless, as he had already worn several crisp straight lefts from southpaw Braehmer and continued to force the pace. A rematch is, in theory agreed, and Braehmer may be forced to leave his homeland if he wants to regain the jewellery.
A walk in the Parker
Joseph Parker is a man in a rush towards a world title shot. He is already mandatory challenger to Anthony Joshua’s IBF world heavyweight title and is now ranked No 1 with the WBO. The dismissive manner in which he stopped Alexander Dimitrenko inside three rounds will have had many in the division wincing. Dimitrenko looked like he simply no longer wanted to share a confined space with the New Zealander.
The victory was not without slight controversy. Dimitrenko appeared already down on one knee when Parker whipped in the body shot that sent the Russian writhing around on the canvas. Some …
