Photo by David Earnisse/Premier Boxing Champions
On the October 16 edition of PBC on Spike, Andrzej Fonfara (28-3 16 KOs) went toe-to-toe for 12 rounds against fellow Light Heavyweight Nathan Cleverly (29-3, 15 KOs) en route to a unanimous decision victory at the UIC Pavilion in Fonfara’s adopted hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
Cleverly, 28, pushed forward fron the very beginning of the first round. The former WBO Light Heavyweight champion was confident in his opening assault, but soon realized how difficult that would be as Fonfara smiled at him and began delivering punishment of his own.
The fight went back and forth, but Fonfara, who is originally from Poland, got the better of the exchanges has he landed harder combinations and managed to land straight shots from the outside.
“Cleverly has a great chin. He’s a great fighter. He was taking a lot of punches and not breaking down. He still wanted to go forward and fight. He believed he could win until the very end,” said Fonfara, who fought the final round as busily as he fought the first round.
“I thought I would knock him out before the fight, but during the fight I realized he has great defense,” said Fonfara.
“I had no idea he could take so many punches and still be in the fight. I realized it would be very hard to knock him out,” said Fonfara.
Fonfara climbing up the fan favorite charts #PBConSpike pic.twitter.com/Eg0PubGqMi
— RoundByRoundBoxing (@RBRBoxing) October 17, 2015
Indeed, Cleverly responded to Fonfara’s shots by asking him for more, though it took a toll on the former world titlist by the middle rounds.
The 27-year-old Fonfara, whose claim to fame came via his stoppage win against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. earlier this year, confidently blocked and took all of Cleverly’s shots, while he himself delivered more punishing blows that left Cleverly’s nose a bloody mess by the middle of the fight.
“He can really bang – he’s not far off Sergey Kovalev for power,” said Cleverly.
“But I thought I had him until the nose went and I think that without that, I could’ve got the win,” said Cleverly.
With his reach and strength advantage firmly behind him, Fonfara won with scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112.
Both set a record in CompuBox History for most punches landed and thrown in a Light Heavyweight fight with a total of 936 punches landed and 2542 thrown.
