Night Of The Challengers: Kovalev Unseats WBO King Cleverly

There was insurrection in the air tonight at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales as three reigning champions were toppled in shocking fashion.

The biggest coup saw fearsome Russian slugger Sergey Kovalev, 22-0-1 (20), of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida progressively shred the resistance of WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly, 26-1 (12), of Cefn Fforrest, over four rounds, halting the Welshman in dominant fashion.

Commonwealth light heavyweight titlist Ovill McKenzie, 21-12 (10), was picked off his perch in a rematch with Swansea’s Enzo Maccarinelli, 37-6 (29), who turned the tables on the Derby man, halting McKenzie in the 11th frame.

Cardiff hardman Gary Buckland, 27-3 (9), was spectacularly iced in the fifth round by Stephen Smith, 17-1 (10), losing the British super feather crown when he was on the cusp of winning the Lonsdale belt outright had he won.

Prior to getting his first world title shot, Kovalev tore a hole right through the light heavyweight division by aggressively going after opponents and gunning down a vast majority of them within the first three rounds.

“The Krusher” started going after Cleverly as soon as the first round commenced but found that the WBO champion was using a tight guard, distance and a snappy jab to largely nullify the challenger’s efficient, machine-like offense.

In the second, Cleverly started to zip in a few nice right hands but Kovalev, who suffered a small cut above his left eye after an accidental clash of heads, started to mix in body shots, bringing the champion’s hands down a bit, which allowed some of Kovalev’s shots to find the target.

By the third, Cleverly began to push Kovalev, who was starting to get winded, back with a long jab and right hands and it appeared that maybe the Russian tiger wasn’t so invincible after all.

Kovalev didn’t lay down however and kept slugging away, seeing a breakthrough with less than a minute left in the frame when a left hand clearly hurt and downed Cleverly, who had stopped moving and was standing in front of a murderous puncher.

From that point on, the hunt was on as Cleverly tried grabbing hold and punching but to little avail as his pursuer relentlessly threw with both hands, striking the stricken champion with lethal precision, again downing the Welshman.

Cleverly looked shaky but beat the eight count only to absorb a further clanging from Kovalev, which only ended when referee Terry O’Connor appeared to very nearly stop the bout in the last seconds of the round, which prevented Cleverly from going down for a third time.

But it was only a postponement of the inevitable for as soon as the fourth round began, Cleverly was unable to effrectively defend himself from the Kovalev onslaught and O’Connor stopped the beating after about 30 seconds.

At stake was not only the WBO title but also a contract with HBO and perhaps a unification match with the old master himself, 48 year old IBF champion Bernard Hopkins.

Commonwealth light heavy champ McKenzie and ex-WBO cruiser king Maccarinelli reprised their November bout, which saw Maccarinelli controversially stopped in the second round, but this time it was a full-on tear up that saw the challenger edge out the early rounds but the champion refused to buckle and clawed his way to control by the middle rounds.

Maccarinelli was hurt in the seventh but managed to hang on and mount his own resurrection, culminating in a vicious 11th round uppercut that knocked McKenzie out of his feet to end the contest.

British super feather titlist Buckland went full tilt after former British featherweight strapholder Smith from the start, exerting constant pressure on the Liverpool man.

But Buckland’s stern resolve and hard punching opened himself up to the faster-handed Smith’s counters whenever the challenger stopped running and timed the champion.

Buckland began to close distance and catch his prey at times but he was also getting shaken by countershots he didn’t see coming from his crafty rival.

A perfect example of this came in the fifth round when Smith unloaded a full-blooded counter right uppercut while Buckland rushed inside, causing the Cardiff hardman instant unconsciousness as he fell face-first to the floor.

The bout was immediately stopped as aid was administered to Buckland, who regained his feet a few minutes later.

Smith joins his super middleweight brother Paul, as a British champion.