Maybe we will have some meaningful boxing on August 26th after all. It is being reported that Badou Jack is close to a deal with Nathan Cleverly for his light heavyweight debut as the presumable co-main event for Floyd Mayweather Jr and Conor McGregor. This would be a really good matchup between former world titleholders and current top ten fighters. The fight also makes logistical sense as Jack is a Mayweather Promotions fighter.
Nathan Cleverly (30-3, 16 KOs) won his light heavyweight title in 2011 and defended it successfully on four occasions before losing it to Sergei Kovalev a little over two years later. During his reign Cleverly’s best win was over Tony Bellew. The two would meet again with Bellew winning, however, when the Welsh fighter moved to cruiserweight for a three fight stint. Since returning to light heavyweight in 2015, Cleverly is again 2-1 with his loss having come against Andrzej Fonfara. Most recently, he stopped former titlist Juergen Braehmer in six.
Badou Jack (21-1-2, 12 KOs) was briefly considered a busted super middleweight prospect following a draw against Marco Antonio Periban and then a first round knockout loss to Derek Edwards two fights later. Somewhat improbably Jack was able to not only resurrect his career, but excel. Just three fights later, Badou found himself in against unbeaten world titleholder Anthony Dirrell. Jack pulled off a majority decision win. Next, he won another close fight over George Groves followed by most recently scoring a pair of draws against Lucian Bute and James DeGale. The Bute draw was later turned to a disqualification win following Bute’s failed drug test.
Given that Gervonta Davis is also reportedly looking to make a title defense on this card, I am glad there seems to be an effort from Mayweather’s side to really put his two best fighters on the show. With fights starting two hours earlier than the PPV on FOX, the Mayweather and larger PBC teams really do start getting stuff booked here.
