Cleverly fights Karpency on Saturday

Nathan Cleverly today met with Wales’ rugby captain Sam Warburton and Cardiff City captain Mark Hudson ahead of one of Welsh sport’s biggest ever weekends.

On Saturday Cleverly makes the third defence of his World Boxing Organization (WBO) World Light-Heavyweight title against American Tommy Karpency at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, while Wales take on England in the Six-Nations at Twickenham and on Sunday, Cardiff City face-off against Liverpool in the Carling Cup final.

The Vale Hotel in Hensol Park hosted media events for all three sports today and Warburton and Hudson dropped in to Cleverly’s head-to-head press conference with Karpency to wish him good luck.

Warburton said, “We are all hoping for a successful weekend in Welsh sport and it is great to have so much silverware at stake in terms of Nathan’s title fight, Cardiff City’s trophy bid and our own pursuit of the Triple Crown against England on Saturday. Everyone in the Wales squad would like to wish both Nathan and the Bluebirds the best of luck for the weekend and lets hope the entire nation, whatever the sport, will have reason to celebrate by Monday morning.”

Hudson said, “Nathan’s a great fighter and I’m sure he’ll defend his title on Saturday so he can make it to our match on Sunday. Also good luck to Sam and the lads in their big match.”

Unbeaten Cleverly said, “It’s a huge huge weekend for Welsh sport and I’m glad that I’m part of it. I’ll be relaxing in the afternoon watching Sam and the boys in the hotel on TV before my big fight and hopefully they’ll do the business. I’ve got my title defence against Karpency which is a must win for me, no two-ways about it. Then I aim to be at the match the next day watching Mark and my mate Darcy Blake take Cardiff City to win the Carling Cup against Liverpool.”

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