 The show in Birmingham will be one of Frank Warren's biggest |
Welshman Nathan Cleverly will face Karo Murat for the WBO interim light-heavyweight title on 18 September. European champion Cleverly and German Murat, who are both unbeaten, will clash at Birmingham's LG Arena and the fight could yet be for the full title. As it stands the winner will fight full title-holder Jurgen Braehmer. Enzo Maccarinelli, Cleverly's fellow Welshman, will make his first European cruiserweight title defence on the same bill against Alexander Frenkel. Frenkel, a Ukrainian based in Germany, is the mandatory challenger and boasts an impressive 22-0 record with 17 knockouts. Swansea's former WBO cruiserweight champion Maccarinelli, 29, rescued his faltering career by winning the European title with a stunning first-round stoppage of Alexander Kotlobay in St Petersburg in April. Cleverly won the vacant European title against Antonio Brancalion in February.  | 606: DEBATE |
But the unbeaten 23-year-old Cefn Fforest man, who has just graduated from Cardiff University after completing his mathematics degree, will move to within touching distance of a world title rather than make an immediate defence of his European belt. "This has been a really busy time for me," he said. "Straight after my European title success in February I was straight into the books to get ready for my exams. "It's a bit frustrating because I wanted to leave the books and concentrate on going for a world title. "But the work's done now, the degree is behind me so it's onwards and upwards for my boxing career. For the first time in my life I can concentrate solely on boxing. "You've seen what I could do when I was a student - now that the degree is behind me you'll see a 50% improvement." Standing in Cleverly's way is Murat, who has previously held the European super-middleweight title but stepped up a division to claim the fringe WBO intercontinental light-heavyweight title against Sergey Demchenko last August. The German has since made two successful defences, stopping Guyana's Sean Corbin in two rounds and then winning an unanimous decision over American Tommy Karpency. Should full title-holder Braehmer fail in his appeal against a 16-month prison sentence for assault and insulting behaviour, Cleverly and Murat will decide who succeeds him. Also on the undercard local fighter Matt Macklin will challenge Darren Barker for the European, Commonwealth and British middleweight titles, while Derek Chisora and Sam Sexton will clash for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight belts. Ryan Rhodes will defend his European light-middleweight title against Lukas Konecny and welterweights Kell Brook and Michael Jennings will finally go head-to-head for the British title, a match which will double as an eliminator for the WBO title - held by Manny Pacquiao. James DeGale will make the first defence of his fringe WBA International super-middleweight belt against an opponent yet to be confirmed, former Commonwealth super-flyweight champion Don Broadhurst will fight for the English title, and there will be a first championship fight for 2007 amateur world champion Frankie Gavin against former Sheffield United footballer Curtis Woodhouse.
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