Nathan Cleverly was born on 17 February 1987 and is a retired Welsh former professional boxing world champion who competed from 2005 to 2017.
45 Facts About Nathan Cleverly
2.
Nathan Cleverly is a two-time light-heavyweight world champion, having held the WBO title from 2011 to 2013, and the WBA title from 2016 to 2017.
3.
Nathan Cleverly's first fight of substance however was in October 2006 when he met Liverpool's Tony Quigley at the MEN Arena in Manchester.
4.
The next big test for the young prospect took place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff just over a year later in September 2007 when Nathan Cleverly met tough Ugandan Joey Vegas.
5.
Nathan Cleverly had made a point of fighting on the undercards of his stablemate Joe Calzaghe with the Vegas fight being one of the prelims to Calzaghe's World title unification fight against Mikkel Kessler.
6.
Nathan Cleverly, fighting outside the UK for the first time as a pro faced American opposition and beat Antonio Baker over 8 rounds.
7.
In October 2008, Nathan Cleverly landed a shot at the vacant Commonwealth light heavyweight title topping the bill for the first time in his career at the Everton Park Sports Centre in Liverpool.
8.
Nathan Cleverly's opponent was the experienced former British champion Tony Oakey who he beat on points over 12 rounds.
9.
Nathan Cleverly saying that whenever the fight between himself and Woods could be made, he would be ready for it.
10.
On 25 September 2009 Nathan Cleverly was pipped to the prestigious Boxing Writers Club young boxer of the year award by only one vote losing out to British welterweight champion Kell Brook in what was the closest vote in the history of the award.
11.
On 9 October 2009 Nathan Cleverly defended both belts for the very first time against former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Courtney Fry.
12.
On 13 February 2010 Nathan Cleverly took on Antonio Brancalion at Wembley Arena in a bid to gain the vacant European light-heavyweight title.
13.
On 18 September 2010 Nathan Cleverly faced the unbeaten Karo Murat at the LG Arena in Birmingham in an eliminator for the WBO light heavyweight title.
14.
Nathan Cleverly moved one step closer to a match up with reigning champion Jurgen Brahmer with a ninth-round TKO to win the fight which was one of the main events on Frank Warren's 'Magnificent Seven' event.
15.
Nathan Cleverly earned the interim version of the belt on 11 December 2010 in an unimpressive contest with the Frenchman Nadjib Mohammedi at the Echo Arena in Liverpool.
16.
An appeal heard in Germany on 13 December 2010 would, if Brahmer had been unsuccessful and sent to prison, have resulted in the belt being vacated and Nathan Cleverly being upgraded to the full champion status.
17.
The pullout resulted in the loss of the main event for the show and speculation that Nathan Cleverly would be awarded the full WBO title by default.
18.
Nathan Cleverly made his first defence of his WBO title on 15 October 2011 with a hard-fought majority points decision against Tony Bellew in Liverpool.
19.
In front of 5,000 strong, the fight went the full 12 round distance as Nathan Cleverly won every round on all three judges scorecards comfortably, to retain his world title.
20.
Nathan Cleverly showed he clearly had the better workrate and technique, winning every round dominantly.
21.
On 5 November 2012, Nathan Cleverly traveled to the United States to make a third title defence against American boxer Shawn Hawk at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
22.
Nathan Cleverly was scheduled to defend his title against Ryan Coyne, but the fight was called off due to contract disputes involving infamous promoter Don King.
23.
Hawk was unranked by the WBO they sanctioned the bout, only if Nathan Cleverly would fight a mandatory challenger next.
24.
Nathan Cleverly retained the WBO title with an 8th round stoppage against Hawk.
25.
Nathan Cleverly used his hand speed and worked Hawk down to the body shots, but carelessly took some shots himself.
26.
Nathan Cleverly spoke to BBC Wales after the fight, "This proves I'm ready for the States, I just hope their best fighters are ready to fight me," Nathan Cleverly was next.
27.
On 20 December 2012, it was announced that Nathan Cleverly world make a defence of his WBO title against mandatory challenger Robin Krasniqi on 16 March 2013.
28.
The WBO threatened Nathan Cleverly, who was hoping to pursue a unification fight against WBA champion Beibut Shumenov, if he didn't fight Krasniqi next.
29.
In what was supposed to be Nathan Cleverly's toughest fight to date, he out skilled and out pointed Krasniqi winning by unanimous decision at the Wembley Arena on 20 April 2013.
30.
Nathan Cleverly set the pace of the fight throughout behind his jab and when he saw the chance, landed a flurry of punches.
31.
Nathan Cleverly made his fifth defence of the title against undefeated Russian Sergey Kovalev on 17 August 2013 at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.
32.
Nathan Cleverly said he had trained hard and was expecting the fight to be toughest of his career so far.
33.
Nathan Cleverly considered retiring after the bout, but decided not to.
34.
In October 2013, Nathan Cleverly told the Daily Mirror that he wanted to rematch Kovalev.
35.
Nathan Cleverly made his Cruiserweight debut on 17 May 2014, defeating Shawn Corbin by second-round technical knockout to win the vacant WBA Inter-Continental Cruiserweight title.
36.
Nathan Cleverly successfully defended the title against Alejandro Emilio Valori on 12 July 2014 via fourth-round technical knockout.
37.
Nathan Cleverly said he struggled with dealing with Bellew at a higher weight.
38.
Nathan Cleverly moved back to light heavyweight following the loss to Bellew.
39.
Nathan Cleverly's first fight back at his original weight was against Tomas Man on 30 May 2015.
40.
On 16 October 2015 Nathan Cleverly fought Polish former world title challenger Andrzej Fonfara at UIC Pavilion in Chicago for the WBC International Light Heavyweight title.
41.
Nathan Cleverly lost the bout via 5th round stoppage, losing his WBA title in the process.
42.
Nathan Cleverly had some success in round 2, throwing and landing continuously without hurting Jack.
43.
In round 4, Jack piled the pressure on Nathan Cleverly, who left himself open and ended up with a bloodied nose.
44.
At the time of stoppage, Jack had landed 172 punches of 442 thrown, while Nathan Cleverly, who threw 409, only landed 82 punches.
45.
On 27 August 2017, Nathan Cleverly announced his retirement from boxing at the age of 30, having lost four of his last eight fights.