Thursday 29 September 2016 16:55, UK
Welsh boxing legend Joe Calzaghe is backing Nathan Cleverly to spring a surprise and dethrone Juergen Braehmer on Saturday.
'Clev' (29-3-KO15) is in Neubrandenburg, Germany preparing to challenge Braehmer (48-2-KO35) for the WBA world light-heavyweight title as an underdog looking to return to British shores with the belt in his possession.
But Calzaghe, who defended the WBO super-middleweight title in Germany back in 2005, said: "This is a great opportunity for Nathan.
"Braehmer is a good boxer but if Nathan fights an intelligent fight, and uses his hand speed and work rate, I definitely fancy him to win.
He has to go over there and take the title from the champion.
"If I was facing Braehmer, I would have done what I always did. I would have used my speed and my boxing ability, and I think I would have won comfortably.
"Nathan is a different kind of fighter, but if he plays to his strengths, I'm sure he can get the job done. He's come back down to light heavyweight, he had a good fight against [Andrzej] Fonfara, and now he's ready to get back into the world title mix.
"He's away, fighting in Germany, so he will need to start fast and dominate the rounds, as any 50-50 rounds will go to the home fighter, but I still fancy him to do it. We saw Enzo Maccarinelli giving Braehmer some trouble at home before his eye started to swell.''
Calzaghe remains the last British boxer to beat a German in a world title fight on German soil and added: "Hopefully Nathan can be the man to break that record and bring the world title home.
"It was a different type of fight for me. Mario Veit was my mandatory challenger. I had already knocked him out in the first round in Cardiff, and then he won about twelve on the bounce and got himself back into the mandatory position.
"I always knew I was going to knock him out again, and he went six-rounds the second time, but as I said it was a different situation for me.
"I came to Germany as the favourite, I dominated from the start and the crowd was pretty subdued. I expect that to be different for Nathan. He has to go over there and take the title from the champion.''
Watch Braehmer v Cleverly live on Sky Sports 2 this Saturday from 8pm
