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New boxing star Nathan Cleverly says he would love a fight against legend Bernard Hopkins.

The Welshman successfully defended his WBO World Light-Heavyweight title for the first time at the weekend, while

Hopkins took the WBC crown from Jean Pascal in their rematch to become the oldest champion in history.

If Cleverly and Hopkins did meet, it would pitch boxing's oldest world champion against one of its youngest.

Hopkins gave Cleverly's then mentor, Joe Calzaghe, a fright in the first round of their fight in April 2008 when he dropped Calzaghe before he went on to win on points.

And Cleverly would love the chance to take on one of the all time greats.

"I've got nothing but respect for Hopkins and all he has achieved," said Cleverly.

"To win a world title at the age of 46 is an absolutely incredible achievement.

"There's a lot of people out there who think he is the best light-heavyweight in the world, I'm the new boy on the scene and I want to prove them wrong.

"He's already been beaten by a Welshman in Joe Calzaghe so If he fancies a bit of revenge then he can have a crack at me.

"My fight against Aleksy Kuziemski was shown live in the States on EPIX over the weekend, and I've been getting plenty of good feed back.

"People out there are beginning to know me, but my name will be on everyone's lips once I dethrone a legend like Hopkins.

Who the hell writes these pressers for Wazza ?

What a load of cack.

Bernie would stand Nathan on his head right now.

Does Hopkins even know who Cleverley is?

Riddick Blowe wrote:Does Hopkins even know who Cleverley is?

Hopkins will be having to deal with a mandatory against Chad Dawson first before even entertaining thoughts of fighting Nathan Cleverly, plus Cleverly will have his own WBO mandatory to under take.

Same old PR tactic from allegedly, feed his man a complete stiff then call out the top dog. I bet it's another WBO stiff for Cleverley in his next fight.

Well here is the WBO rankings at 175lbs up to Saturday night
1 Dmitry Sukhotsky (Int-Cont) RUS
2 Braimah Kamoho (WBO Africa) GHA
3 Soulan Pownceby (Asia-Pacific) NZ
4 Eduard Gutknecht GER
5 Marcus Vinicius de Oliveira (Latino) BRA
6 Tomas Kovacs (WBO Europe) SVK
7 Zsolt Erdei HUN
8 Kariz Kariuki (Oriental) KEN
9 Chad Dawson USA
10 Karo Murat GER
11 Aleksy Kuziemski POL
12 Isaac Chilemba MAL
13 Denis Simcic SVN
14 Tony Bellew GB
15 Viacheslav Uzelkov UKR

So I wonder who he will go for. I reckon Bellew will climb into or near the top 10 should he get past Ovil McKenzie his rematch for the Commonwealth Light-Heavy and challenge for the British title. But Gutknecht might make the step from European Champion to go for Cleverly perhaps?

I'm calling that Kovacs will be the next Cleverly defence. Bellew needs to go to Cruiserweight imo.

Riddick Blowe wrote:Does Hopkins even know who Cleverley is?

I expect an interview with Hopkins about Cleverly would be reminscent of that old milk/Accrington stanley advert.

Dawson aside that WBO list is a total pack of sh*t it really is.

Garcia, Shumenov are the stepping stones to Hopkins.

G0mez wrote:Dawson aside that WBO list is a total pack of sh*t it really is.

Garcia, Shumenov are the stepping stones to Hopkins.

Erdei is good defence better than Cleverly imo

For Hopkins "Calzaghe revenge" was probably more about beating a "white boy" (something he did when he outclassed Pavlik) than a Welshman.

Does the praise Hopkins is getting mean people are finally starting to realise Joe was not bad?

mickey1975 wrote:Does the praise Hopkins is getting mean people are finally starting to realise Joe was not bad?

ask Gomez

And revenge he would get.

Counter-puncher wrote:

mickey1975 wrote:Does the praise Hopkins is getting mean people are finally starting to realise Joe was not bad?

ask Gomez

I darent. He will try to get me banned. Again...

i saw him call Khan 'our Olympic silver medalist' the other week. this is real progress.

i have real hopes he will be referring to him as King Khan before the decade is out

jameswilson wrote:

Riddick Blowe wrote:Does Hopkins even know who Cleverley is?

I expect an interview with Hopkins about Cleverly would be reminscent of that old milk/Accrington stanley advert.

i doubt hopkins would even bother to reply. what's in it for him? though the only opponents we'll see hopkins in with are those with the kind of defensive deficiencies that cleverly has been showing, of recent.

mickey1975 wrote:Does the praise Hopkins is getting mean people are finally starting to realise Joe was not bad?

the win was good on paper but really was horrendous viewing and the fight was a bit close for the british fans/media, some/many of whom did not think joe would get the verdict.

if anything hopkins has upstaged joe at light heavyweight, by getting credit for his performances v pascal, aged 46, and also shutting out pavlik, whom a lot of us wanted to see joe in with.

but calzaghe did beat a legit top 10 "pound for pound" entrant.

the Hopkins fight and his subsequent performances definitely adds some lustre to the Calzaghe legacy, posthumously, IMO.

even if you say JC lost, given Hopkins' more recent displays, taking 4 or 5 rounds off him is a good deal better than any of 'Nard's pater opponents.....

Riddick Blowe wrote:Does Hopkins even know who Cleverley is?

I doubt it! And the way Cleverly looked on Saturday, he should steer well clear from Hopkins. B-Hop has forgotten more than Clev will ever know & yet, he would still have way too much for him!

The hopkins/pascal fight was abismal, holding and mauling I found it hard to watch and I will stick my neck out and say Cleverly beats hopkins right now

IRLangmaid25 wrote:

Riddick Blowe wrote:Does Hopkins even know who Cleverley is?

Hopkins will be having to deal with a mandatory against Chad Dawson first before even entertaining thoughts of fighting Nathan Cleverly, plus Cleverly will have his own WBO mandatory to under take.

I doubt Hopkins will worry about his mandatory, at this stage of his career the belt is irrelevant, he's done everything, and he'll have the Ring belt anyway. Besides Dawson didn't exactly pull up any trees on the undercard to sell the fight did he.

Flump wrote:

IRLangmaid25 wrote:

Riddick Blowe wrote:Does Hopkins even know who Cleverley is?

Hopkins will be having to deal with a mandatory against Chad Dawson first before even entertaining thoughts of fighting Nathan Cleverly, plus Cleverly will have his own WBO mandatory to under take.

I doubt Hopkins will worry about his mandatory, at this stage of his career the belt is irrelevant, he's done everything, and he'll have the Ring belt anyway. Besides Dawson didn't exactly pull up any trees on the undercard to sell the fight did he.

Exactly.

If anything, I can see Bernard moving up to cruiser and looking for a title there.

jonny wrote:The hopkins/pascal fight was abismal, holding and mauling I found it hard to watch and I will stick my neck out and say Cleverly beats hopkins right now

I agree, I think Clev's workrate and speed could be too much - needs to improve his defence considerably though

Autobarn wrote:

mickey1975 wrote:Does the praise Hopkins is getting mean people are finally starting to realise Joe was not bad?

the win was good on paper but really was horrendous viewing and the fight was a bit close for the british fans/media, some/many of whom did not think joe would get the verdict.

if anything hopkins has upstaged joe at light heavyweight, by getting credit for his performances v pascal, aged 46, and also shutting out pavlik, whom a lot of us wanted to see joe in with.

but calzaghe did beat a legit top 10 "pound for pound" entrant.

All Hopkins fights are poor viewing but the fact remains Joe beat him! How can he have upstaged him at LHW when he lost to him? The formline says no. Pascal had lost to Froch, who had lost to Kessler, who lost to Joe, etc.... Pavlik? The less said the better.