by David P. Greisman

Nathan Cleverly’s return to light heavyweight wasn’t merely meant to be a retreat from the cruiserweight division with his tail between his legs — it also was initially intended to put him back in the mix at 175.

That’s because Cleverly was originally going to face Juergen Braehmer, the World Boxing Association’s “regular” titleholder at light heavyweight (Sergey Kovalev has the WBA’s “super” title along with two other belts). Instead, he wound up choosing another route.

“I was presented with the opportunity to fight Juergen Braehmer in Germany for the WBA world title. And I had my heart set on that fight.  I was looking forward to that fight. It was a chance for me to become world champion again,” Cleverly recalled.

“And then my promoter came back to me a few weeks later with the opportunity to fight Andrzej Fonfara in America in Chicago. I took a few days to make the decision,” Cleverly said. “I had my heart set on the world title fight against Braehmer. And then suddenly I was presented with this fantastic opportunity to come to America on a big platform, PBC, and [be] showcased in a big fight against Fonfara.”

Fonfara vs. Cleverly will take place on Oct. 16 in Chicago on a Premier Boxing Champions broadcast on Spike TV. This will be Cleverly’s third time fighting in the United States — it was early in his career when he topped Antonio Baker on the Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe undercard in 2008, and he stopped Shawn Hawk on the Showtime Extreme portion of the Abner Mares-Anselmo Moreno undercard in Los Angeles in 2012.

There’s also the possibility of what a win over Fonfara would open up for Cleverly, given the numerous light heavyweights in the stable of Al Haymon, the influential boxing figure behind the PBC series.

“Ultimately, I just feel fighting here in America on this big stage, PBC, it was too much of a big opportunity to turn away,” Cleverly said. “I declined the world title fight. I believe this is a bigger fight. It’s probably a more difficult fight, but it’s on a bigger platform. It’s in the States. I like fighting here, so let’s do it.”

This’ll essentially be Cleverly’s second fight at light heavyweight since coming back down to the division. The former titleholder left 175 after getting dethroned in four rounds by Kovalev in 2013. He moved up to cruiserweight in 2014, beating Shawn Corbin in May of that year, Alejandro Valori that July, and then having a rematch with Tony Bellew last November. Bellew won by split decision.

Cleverly dropped close to 20 pounds for his fight this past May against Tomas Man, weighing in slightly over 179 pounds. He won in 24 seconds, moving his record to 29-2 with 15 KOs.

Fonfara is 27-3 with 16 KOs and has won two straight since his loss to light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson last year, outpointing Doudou Ngumbu last November and then scoring a ninth-round technical knockout of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. this past April.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com