Sunday 2 October 2016 11:38, UK
Nathan Cleverly is a two-time world champion and Joseph Parker continues to strike fear, but what else did we learn from the weekend action?
It wasn't the way he would have imagined it in his wildest dreams, but Nathan Cleverly has become a two-time world light-heavyweight champion. He may have been two rounds behind Juergen Braehmer on all three scorecards at the halfway stage of their clash in Germany but that should not detract from his achievement nor from the toughness he had already showed in the bout.
The home fighter had landed the cleaner shots early on and his decision to pull out with an elbow problem before the seventh round came as a shock to just about everyone in Neubrandenburg. Credit is due to the new WBA light-heavyweight king regardless, as he had already worn several crisp straight lefts from southpaw Braehmer and continued to force the pace. A rematch is, in theory agreed, and Braehmer may be forced to leave his homeland if he wants to regain the jewellery.
Joseph Parker is a man in a rush towards a world title shot. He is already mandatory challenger to Anthony Joshua's IBF world heavyweight title and is now ranked No 1 with the WBO. The dismissive manner in which he stopped Alexander Dimitrenko inside three rounds will have had many in the division wincing. Dimitrenko looked like he simply no longer wanted to share a confined space with the New Zealander.
The victory was not without slight controversy. Dimitrenko appeared already down on one knee when Parker whipped in the body shot that sent the Russian writhing around on the canvas. Some commentary teams called it theatrics but there's little doubt it was an illegal blow. What may be more telling is that if Parker sensed he was operating on the blindside of the referee, then he's an opportunist as well as a puncher. Champions be warned.
You can only beat what is in front of you, they say, and David Price did just that. Not a great deal about Ivica Perkovic's record or conditioning suggested that Liverpool's towering heavyweight would need to be at his best to emerge victorious, but the lack of true competition allowed for a different kind of success.
By his own admission afterwards, Price is not famed for his body shots yet as soon as a shuddering left hook to the solar plexus landed in the second round, Perkovic took the unusual measure of waving off his own fight. The Croat was clearly badly winded. The first-round knockdown was a clearer success; Price firing in a right uppercut to left-hook combination that left his man with no answer. Talk of facing Anthony Joshua sounds ambitious at this stage but there is little doubt that trainer Dave Coldwell has this giant train back on the right track.
One of the more entertaining - if short-lived - bouts on the undercard was Ohara Davies' two-round destruction of Chaquib Fadli, a Frenchman who had delayed European champion Lenny Daws some 10 rounds in 2014. The young Hackney fighter moved seamlessly to 13-0-KO11 with some brutal punching, felling his man in the first session with a speedy left hook that landed on the top of the head.
Despite Fadli's increasingly bizarre antics in the ring, which included showboating and also what appeared to be some dance moves, Davies kept his cool and even smiled when his opponent tried to launch an assault of his own. The finish was emphatic; a heavy overhand right that sent Fadli sagging against the ropes. Post-fight talk of a shot at British super-lightweight champion or highly-ranked Italian Andrea Scarpa suggest a significant step will be taken before the year is out.
It had been a turbulent few weeks for British boxing, which saw its tally of world champions fall to 11 after Liam Smith and Anthony Crolla hand over their titles to pound-for-pound contenders Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Jorge Linares respectively. Throw in Kell Brook's brave but brutal defeat at the hands of Gennady Golovkin and it appeared to be a mini-crisis.
On German soil, of all places, Nathan Cleverly regained a world title and gave us all a welcome tonic. Liverpool heavyweight David Price and London super-lightweight Ohara Davies set the scene with a pair of ruthlessly-efficient second-round stoppage victories but there was no doubt as to the headline act as Cleverly showed grim determination and a relentless work-rate before Braehmer withdrew at halfway. The result arrests the UK's worrying run of results and re-establishes a feel-good factor.
