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Boxing

01st Oct 2016

Nathan Cleverly becomes two-time world champion with victory in Germany

They all count

Tom Victor

Welsh boxer Nathan Cleverly dug deep in his WBA (regular) light heavyweight title bout before Jürgen Brähmer handed him victory by retiring injured.

Defending champion Brähmer had the better of the early exchanges, but an injury to his right arm saw the German withdrawn at the start of the seventh round.

Victory sees Cleverly add another career title to the WBO light heavyweight belt he held earlier in his career and retained several times before losing it to Sergey Kovalev in 2013.

Praise for Cleverly has already arrived from across the sporting world, and while the Caerphilly fighter would have liked to win in different circumstances, he’s unlikely to have too many complaints.

If Brähmer’s injury proves serious – and his surprise withdrawal suggests it may well be – then the pair may well have to wait some time before a rematch is scheduled.

That means another opponent could arrive before Cleverly takes on the German again – perhaps someone with whom he has unfinished business…

Kovalev’s next fight comes against Andre Ward in November, with both fighters defending unbeaten records at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

If the Russian wins to go 31-0-1, could we find ourselves in a situation where a rematch with Cleverly is on the cards sooner than we expected?

SNAPCHAT