There was a point in Nathan Cleverly’s career when he was a world champion. He captured the WBO light heavyweight title by clobbering Aleksy Kuziemski within four rounds in May 2011. It wasn’t until the Welshman defended it a few times before he was considered a legitimate, elite-level pugilist.
That was until he ran into a Russian buzz saw named Sergey Kovalev two years later.
Kovalev trounced Cleverly and took him out in the fourth after dropping him twice in the third. Just like that, in a matter of 20 or so minutes, the majority of the boxing world changed course and cast him off as just another U.