Cleverly still WBO champion

By Karl Freitag

In a grudge match, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 11 KOs) won a twelve round majority decision over previously unbeaten Tony Bellew (16-1, 10 KOs) on Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. In a very good action fight with many ebbs and flows, the bout seemed very close entering the championship rounds. Cleverly had more in rounds eleven and twelve to pull it out by scores of 114-114, 116-113, 117-112. After the fight Cleverly stated that he is looking forward to facing the winner of tonight’s Hopkins-Dawson WBC championship clash or WBA champ Beibut Shumenov.

2008 Olympic gold medalist James DeGale (11-1, 8 KOs) rebounded from his loss to George Groves in May by dethroning European super middleweight champion Piotr Wilczewski (29-2, 10 KOs) by twelve round majority decision. Wilczewski rocked DeGale with a right hand in round five that had DeGale holding on, but most rounds were close. Scores were 114-114, 115-113, 115-113.

2008 Olympian middleweight Billy Joe Saunders (10-0, 7 KOs) destroyed Norbert Szekeres (9-8-3, 6 KOs) in the first round.

Unbeaten super middleweight “Rocky from Stocky” Fielding (9-0, 3 KOs) outpointed late sub Tommy Tolan (4-7, 3 KOs) over six ugly rounds. The referee scored it 60-54.

October 15th, 2011

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