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A big light heavyweight showdown took place tonight at London’s York Hall with Nathan Cleverly emerging as the new British champion after defeating Danny McIntosh.
Already the Commonwealth titlist, Cleverly had one last obstacle to clear in the form of English belt holder McIntosh in order to begin the long climb to the world stage.
And clear it he did, but not without an argument from the Norwich based brawler.
Cleverly immediately looked the classier fighter once the bell rang as he was quicker than McIntosh and took advantage of the almost non existent defense of his rival.
The Welshman negated his own height advantage by standing and trading with McIntosh and as a result got caught with more than a few good left hooks and uppercuts from the English titlist.
But by the second, Cleverly’s persistent left hands to the body, thrown with full power, were having the desired effect as McIntosh was starting to show down and also drop his hands even further on defense.
Some of the Commonwealth king’s shots were straying low and he was warned by the referee.
One particularly laser-like left to the body hurt McIntosh and soon after he was floored from a sharp right hand.
McIntosh got back up and soldiered on, while Cleverly rode his advantage and soon dropped his rival again.
Once again, McIntosh beat the count and went back at it hammer and tongs with Cleverly only to be dropped in the next round.
The big-hearted English titlist got back up for a third time and continued with the slugfest but by the seventh, could no longer take the two-handed punishment doled out by Cleverly and was stopped at 1:30 of the frame.
Cleverly adds the vacant British light heavyweight title to his collection and improves to 17-0 (7) while McIntosh absorbs his first loss, going to 10-1 (4).
On the undercard, welterweight Tom Glover, 9-5-3 (0), dropped down to meet former European lightweight champ Jon Thaxton, 34-10 (19), at light welter and the spoiler pulled off another upset after eight rounds, defeating Thaxton 77-76 after “Jono” lost a point for holding.
Heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury, 7-0 (7), stayed perfect with a third round stoppage of import Aleksandars Selezens, 3-7 (1).
