Nathan Cleverly v Tony Bellew / Piotr Wilczewski v James Degale

[J_C]

I had DeGale and Cleverly both winning 7-5, so fair results imo. Neither losing fighter had any complaints they both thought they had lost, so there is no controversy here despite being close fights.

[Leighton]

I have to admit that before the fights I thought it was going to be easy fights for Cleverly and DeGale.
I think Degale looked crap in his fight. He was no where near as fast as usual and I hardly saw him throw a jab. He looked like he didnt train.
In the Cleverly fight it looked like Bellew had thoroughly improved from his last fight. It looked like all that training with Froch paid off. Good speed and power. I think he lost it by about a round but a great performance against a top ten fighter. They have him ranked 14th in the world on boxrec which it looks like he deserves.
I think he should fight either Zsolt Erdei or Karo Murat next.
As far as Cleverly goes I think he should stay away from Bhop or Dawson for the Mo and go for Beibut Shumenov. He needs to improve his technique before he takes on the top four in the devision because if he took them on now, he would lose easily.

[superheavyrhun]

I have to admit that before the fights I thought it was going to be easy fights for Cleverly and DeGale.
I think Degale looked crap in his fight. He was no where near as fast as usual and I hardly saw him throw a jab. He looked like he didnt train.
In the Cleverly fight it looked like Bellew had thoroughly improved from his last fight. It looked like all that training with Froch paid off. Good speed and power. I think he lost it by about a round but a great performance against a top ten fighter. They have him ranked 14th in the world on boxrec which it looks like he deserves.
I think he should fight either Zsolt Erdei or Karo Murat next.
As far as Cleverly goes I think he should stay away from Bhop or Dawson for the Mo and go for Beibut Shumenov. He needs to improve his technique before he takes on the top four in the devision because if he took them on now, he would lose easily.

I agree that Shumenov would be a good way for Cleverly to go, before having a look at Dawson. I think BHop wouldn't be too bad a match up though, lots of experience and not a massive workrate to cope with.

[Master]

Who stayed up all night and is knackered today?

[Rantcatrat]

Given the high expectations for Degale and Cleverly, I was underwhelmed by their performances. They were both supposed to be world class and I had them only just barely winning the fights. In fact, I thought Degale was close to losing his fight; he won by maybe a round or two. The Pole definitely had the stronger punches. Considering that Degale also had a lot of trouble with Groves who is good but not supposed to be world class, I don't see a very high future for either fighter. Cleverly loses to the top light heavyweights - Pascal, Dawson, Cloud, Salikh, or Hopkins. Degale loses to any of the top guys at super middleweight. Don't get me wrong though, I applaud both for their valiant efforts in the ring last night. They were in entertaining fights and fought their arses off.

[armin]

Given the high expectations for Degale and Cleverly, I was underwhelmed by their performances. They were both supposed to be world class and I had them only just barely winning the fights. In fact, I thought Degale was close to losing his fight; he won by maybe a round or two. The Pole definitely had the stronger punches. Considering that Degale also had a lot of trouble with Groves who is good but not supposed to be world class, I don't see a very high future for either fighter. Cleverly loses to the top light heavyweights - Pascal, Dawson, Cloud, Salikh, or Hopkins. Degale loses to any of the top guys at super middleweight. Don't get me wrong though, I applaud both for their valiant efforts in the ring last night. They were in entertaining fights and fought their arses off.

Degales people just need to put the brakes on, I mean it was his 11th fight, so for the next few years stay away from world class, still young and time to develop...not sure hell ever get there but really he should be nothing more than a prospect at this point.

[Rantcatrat]

Given the high expectations for Degale and Cleverly, I was underwhelmed by their performances. They were both supposed to be world class and I had them only just barely winning the fights. In fact, I thought Degale was close to losing his fight; he won by maybe a round or two. The Pole definitely had the stronger punches. Considering that Degale also had a lot of trouble with Groves who is good but not supposed to be world class, I don't see a very high future for either fighter. Cleverly loses to the top light heavyweights - Pascal, Dawson, Cloud, Salikh, or Hopkins. Degale loses to any of the top guys at super middleweight. Don't get me wrong though, I applaud both for their valiant efforts in the ring last night. They were in entertaining fights and fought their arses off.

Degales people just need to put the brakes on, I mean it was his 11th fight, so for the next few years stay away from world class, still young and time to develop...not sure hell ever get there but really he should be nothing more than a prospect at this point.

100% correct. Master his skills before moving up. This was almost too much of a step up. If he had lost here, it would have been a major setback for his career.