• Boxing

Cleverly and Hopkins set for 2011 showdown

ESPN staff
May 24, 2011
Nathan Cleverly successfully defended his WBO light-heavyweight title on Saturday evening © PA Photos
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Nathan Cleverly is on course for a unification showdown against Bernard Hopkins this year, according to Cleverly's promoter Frank Warren.

Cleverly successfully defended the WBO light-heavyweight title on Saturday against Aleksy Kuziemski, having inherited the belt a few days previous when Juergen Braehmer was forced to vacate after pulling out of his fight with Cleverly at short notice.

Although he might have been expected to consolidate his title reign with a couple of defences against the division's lesser lights, it seems Cleverly is targeting the 46-year-old Hopkins, who became the oldest man to win a world title when he beat Jean Pascal last weekend in a scrap for the WBC championship.

"It would be nice to get it on some time before Christmas," Warren told the BBC, adding that Cardiff's Millennium Stadium would be the ideal venue for the showdown. "If we could make Cleverly and Bernard Hopkins, that's the home for it. Anything's likely at the moment. Nathan is up there with all these guys. He's a fabulous champion and I do believe he's got the beating of most of them."

Despite Hopkins' advancing years, there is no rush to agree a fight, with the veteran insisting he will fight until he turns 50. The American, who turned pro the year before Cleverly was born, has emerged as one of the sport's legends - despite losing his first fight after turning over.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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