Nathan Cleverly will fight Liverpool’s Tony Bellew in the second defence of his WBO light-heavyweight championship in the Scouser’s back-yard of the Liverpool Echo Arena on October 15^th.

The mouth-watering announcement was made in London yesterday by Britain’s biggest promoter, Frank Warren. It promises to be an all action fight as the two finally get the right opportunity to settle their differences.

The fierce competition between Britain’s two best light-heavyweights has been brewing for the last few years and it reached simmering point in May when the two clashed and almost came to blows at a pre-fight press conference. Evertonion Bellew stepped in late to replace no-show Juergen Braehmer before eventually being beaten by the scales but by then it had become a fight in demand by the British boxing public.

Yesterday’s press conference passed without drama compared to the one in May. Cleverly, Wales’ 11^th world champion, was made to wait two hours for Bellew to arrive at the press conference to announce the fight at the Landmark Hotel in North West London following public transport delays.

Once Bellew arrived he brandished a jersey of his football team, Everton, and on the back it bore the words “And The New 1” which Cleverly pointed and laughed at. The two didn’t exchange any words during the face to face photo session and only shared a few words as they conducted their one to one interviews later on but the tension was evident in the room.

“A fight between me and Bellew has been heating up for a long time and now he’s ready to be taught a lesson,” said Cleverly who only has 7 weeks to wait before facing Bellew, “He’s got a big mouth, but he can’t back it up with his fists and this time he’s talked himself into big trouble that he won’t be able to fight his way out of.”

Bellew commented, “I’m really happy that it’s happening. I’ve worked my whole life towards this and come October 15^th I’m just going to go in there and do what I’ve been doing most of my career.”

Frank Warren also dropped the bombshell that the winner of Cleverly and Bellew is being lined up to fight the winner of a big fight on the same night in the USA. Pugilist legend Bernard Hopkins takes on former titlist Chad Dawson and Warren thinks the winners of both fights can fight each other following successful talks with Golden Boy CEO, Richard Schaefer.

This gives Cleverly an added incentive to defeat Bellew. Cleverly has described Hopkins as an idol and inspiration but he still wants to follow Welsh compatriot Joe Calzaghe who defeated Hopkins on points in 2008 at Las Vegas.

Hopkins became the oldest world champion ever when he defeated Jean Pascal on May 21^st, coincidently the same date of Cleverly’s first ever world title fight. Veteran promoter, Frank Warren, said that the fight could happen in Cardiff’s magnificent Millennium Stadium.