Nathan Cleverly will make the first defense of his WBO light heavyweight title against Aleksy Kuziemski on Saturday night after unbeaten Tony Bellew failed to make weight Thursday.
On a bizarre day even for boxing, Cleverly was declared the champion after it was stripped from Juergen Braehmer when he pulled out of the bout at 02 Arena because of an eye injury. Bellew agreed to become challenger but the Englishman failed to make weight and was quickly replaced by Kuziemski of Poland (21-2).
Cleverly (21-0) was relieved to still be fighting.
''It's been a mad time. Let's face it, any problems after this fight will be nothing in comparison,'' the Welshman said. ''I've got to get my head round to focusing on Kuziemski now, he is the man in front of me on Saturday night so I've got to forget about Bellew and Braehmer altogether. He's got a good record, he's highly ranked and he's been in with some good guys so he won't be a pushover.''
