Nathan Cleverly suffers points defeat to Andrzej Fonfara

Last night on Spike, Premier Boxing Champions may have had its finest night of action yet, as both fights delivered the goods in Chicago, with Andrzej Fonfara battling past a bloody, gutsy Nathan Cleverly in the main event, and Kohei Kono successfully defending his super flyweight belt against Koki Kameda.

Cleverly edged the early rounds and seemed to have the beating of Fonfara in terms of speed and accuracy, but it became evident Fonfara was exhibiting the heavier hands, and gloves. The only reason why it would be interesting for Fonfara to fight Cleverly a second time is if the money was good enough for him to go backwards with his career instead of forwards. A former 175-pound titlist, Cleverly challenged Fonfara’s gas tank by setting a hectic pace.

At the end of the fight Kameda had thrown 1039 punches and landed 362. The judges scored the fight 115-113, 116-112, and 116-112. The bout was the first world title fight between two Japanese fighters that was fought on USA soil. Kono (31-8-1) promptly answered with a lovely straight right that sent Kameda (33-2), who entered the fight as a hefty favorite in the Las Vegas lines, to the canvas.

Kameda, a southpaw, was active with his left hand in the first round and was the more accurate puncher. Kameda blatantly hit Kono with three low blows while clinching in the second round.

By the seventh round, Kameda’s face had swelled badly, particularly around his left eye, from the non-stop shots Kono had landed.

“We threw a lot of punches”, Fonfara said.

The fight went the distance and it would’ve made sense if either fighter was awarded the fight.

Fonfara is a well-schooled boxer who possesses good power and for him the stakes are just as high as victory would earn him a possible lucrative rematch with Stevenson.

“I declined the world title fight and I believe this is a bigger fight”.

“I thought I would knock him out before the fight, but during the fight I realized he has great defense”. “I respect him very much”.

“I was positive I won before they read the decision”.

“I’m very grateful to everybody involved with this show”.

“What’s next for me?” “I had a feeling that our styles were going to jell and that’s what happened”. The two pugilists set CompuBox records for punches thrown and landed for a light heavyweight encounter, a record that was set in the ninth and 10th rounds of the scrum.

“[Fonfara] can really bang. He’s a warrior. He got broke noise but he stayed in there and tried to win”.

“I think he gains everybody’s respect because he’s put up a great fight”, Bellew said to Sky Sports when speaking about Cleverly.

“I’ve been training to win this title for years and I’m so happy that I have defended the title”.

The fight continued in a phone booth in the eighth round as Kameda’s face was a swollen mess. I gave it everything.

“My jab was superb tonight and my uppercut rarely missed”. “But after he hit me a few times and I was still there, I started getting confidence”.

“I was going to make a decision on whether to retire or not based on my performance”.

“My stamina wasn’t what it should be in the later rounds”. He fought very well and I was surprised by his power.