FORMER world champion Nathan Cleverly says he has had enough of meaningless fights, insisting he will only take on elite boxers for the rest of his career.

The Cefn Fforest fighter has lost three of his last six bouts but still has ambitions of becoming world champion again.

The 28-year-old was accused of avoiding the best light-heavyweights during his three-year reign as WBO champion before losing to Sergey Kovalev in August 2013.

"Every fight now till the end of my career, until I hang the gloves up I'll go to war," said Cleverly.

"Real fights against elite fighters, world title belts or top level fighters on the big stage, only those now till the end of my career."

Cleverly concedes that the fight against Kovalev and the loss to Pole Andrzej Fonfara in October this year were a step-up in class to previous opponents.

He moved up a division after losing his title to Kovalev two years ago.

The Welshman considered retiring after losing to English cruiserweight Tony Bellew in November 2014, yet returned to light-heavyweight for a "fresh assault" on the division.

That resulted in a points defeat against Fonfara in a WBC International light-heavyweight title bout.

"I could happily have stayed unbeaten against fringe contenders," he added. "But I tested myself against Kovalev, who is probably the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.

"Obviously I lost my last fight, but again Fonfara is an elite level fighter."

Although Cleverly says retirement is not an option, he concedes that he is concerned about the effect on his health.

"There's a large element of me which says you don't want many of those fights," Cleverly told BBC Wales Sport.

"They're brutal, your nose is broken, your face is swollen and you can feel the swelling around your brain.

"You definitely don't want too many of them but I'm prepared to do it again."

Cleverly will speak to his promoter Eddie Hearn over the next few weeks with a view to setting up a bout with WBA light-heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer.

Elusive German Braehmer was set to defend his WBO belt against Cleverly back in 2011 but pulled out of the fight and eventually vacated the title.

The pair almost met in 2013 when Cleverly was champion and again this year but the Welshman opted to take on Fonfara instead.

Braehmer won the vacant WBA belt in 2013 and defended it successfully against Wales’ Enzo Maccarinelli in April last year.