Cleverly - Beats Oakey and Looks a Star of the Future
Published October 11, 2008 by Martin Bean
21 Year old Nathan Cleverly of Wales came off age last night (10th October 2008) as he outpointed tough Tony Oakey of Portsmouth in an excellent 12 round contest, winning the Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight Title in the process.
For Cleverly, now 13-0 (3 KO’s), this was his first real test and Oakey (25-4, 7 KO’s) provided the perfect opposition to judge how far this young man can go—many prospects would have wilted under constant pressure from Oakey over 12 fast paced rounds. But Cleverly seemed to revel in it and he made things easier for himself as the fight wore on.
Clevely started fast, landing some great long range punches, especially a nice right uppercut; this punch would prove to be a constant feature throughout the contest. After a sharp round one, Cleverly adopted what seemed the wrong tactics—he crouched down in front of Oakey let him get in close, giving away his advantages in both height and reach.
Although Cleverly was still coming off better in the exchanges with his sharper hand speed, it seemed that Oakey was likely to come on strong down the stretch and the young prospect might ending up paying for fighting Oakey’s type of fight—it was almost as if Clevely was trying to prove he too had ‘cojones’.
This pattern continued throughout the first half of the fight, with close exchanges and neither fighter giving ground. Cleverly’s work was cleaner but in rounds four and five Oakey came on stronger in the final minute of the round—a potentially worrying indication for what could lie ahead in the second half of the fight for Cleverly.
But the excellent Welshman would not be denied, from round 7 onwards he got on his bike, hitting and moving, finally making use of his physical attributes.
It was widely expected 32 year old Oakey would put Cleverly under pressure down the stretch but the opposite was true—it was Cleverly who looked fresher and Oakey appeared a little dispirited at not being able to break down the young man’s resolve.
Cleverly took a unanimous 12 round victory and now can look forward to some exciting matches in the division, with the likes of Dean Francis and Paul David possible future challengers.
On an undercard full of good prospects Matthew Hall of Manchester stood out as his body punching took out the much heavier Northern Irishman Ciaran Healy in round three. Hall’s body punching was reminiscent of a young Ricky Hatton at times as he switched his feet well to create openings. Hall though has lots to improve on before we can make any more likenesses to the Hitman though.
Former Amateur Welterweight rivals Denton Vassell and Joe Selkirk both won on the undercard. Vassell beat Alex Spitko of Latvia inside two rounds—finishing him off with a crushing left hook to the body and now moves to 9-0 with 5 early wins. Selkirk won widely on points against for his second victory in two starts (both on points), beating old stalwart Ernie Smith in the process.
Former three times ABA Heavyweight Champion Tony Bellew notched a 39-37 victory against Jevgenijs Andreievs, despite suffering a flash knockdown in the process.
All in all a good show at the Everton Park Sports centre put on by Frank Warren’s Sports Network. The future for most looks bright—especially young Cleverly.
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