IF you want a sport where you can point to the champion, to the best of the best, you don’t want to become a fan of boxing.

If you value a sport where win and loss records mean everything, where stats are king and marketing and perception are secondary factors, try baseball or cricket. Boxing isn’t for you.

But if boxing is for you, you will be more than aware that in boxing, with its razzamatazz, multiple weight-categories and more alphabet titles than one can count, perception does matter.

In boxing, in fact, perception is everything. Marketability matters a whole lot more than winning or losing a fight.

This is precisely why the landscape of boxing has changed immeasurably - for the better - for Cefn Fforest fighter Nathan Cleverly, who triumphed at the weekend, even in defeat.

Cleverly, now 28-3 and still only 28-years old, is a former light heavyweight world champion seeking the biggest opportunities and paydays and yet he’s knocked for that.

Cleverly, who was undefeated in 26 contests and a WBO world champion, was knocked for that.

Cleverly, who was defeated by a once-in-a-lifetime brute in Sergey Kovalev, decided to switch to cruiserweight. And he was knocked for that.

Cleverly, who has a Maths degree, also changed promoter, eyeing a clash with domestic rival Tony Bellew that would pay huge. He lost that fight and wasn’t physically able to step up to cruiser at the top level. He was knocked for all of that.

Cleverly also, as a world champion, tried to engineer a catch-weight contest against super middleweight king Carl Froch... Can you guess what happened?

For the last few years, for a number of reasons, Nathan Cleverly has absurdly been derided and degraded, largely by jealous people or people whose real gripe wasn’t even with Nathan.

The problem in having a grudge like someone with Bellew over a number of years is that Bellew has a large influence on the domestic scene, not to mention a huge following, especially in the northwest. That’s the same story as with Froch, only multiplied by 100.

The duo bad-mouthing Cleverly constantly has caused people to listen.

I think there was also always a stigma with Cleverly because of his Mathematics degree. It hardly fits the profile of a fans’ favourite in a working class sport does it? Fighters are constantly talking about hunger and desire and ‘needing’ to box to pay the bills, so perhaps it’s only natural there is resentment from within the sport for a guy who doesn’t ‘have’ to do anything. Who has the brains to prove a fallback on his talent when the gloves get hung up.

And then there is Vince Cleverly, Nathan’s father and former coach. I’ve always enjoyed a decent relationship with Vince from a professional stand-point, but it’s not unfair to say that he’s a polarising character, a Marmite figure who is liked or loathed on the local scene.

He’s not averse to starting a spat or two on social media and that lessened goodwill towards Nathan on the local scene. Think Enzo Maccarinelli really detests his former stablemate? Not a chance, he’s not the sort. He’s just bitter, and perhaps rightly, at the things said about him by Nathan’s father.

Cleverly was viewed by so many people as a hand-selected Frank Warren fighter who was politicked to a world title and then shown up by Kovalev and Bellew; that it was tough to see where he could go in his career. Against Bellew he looked shot shy, like the damage done by Kovalev was as much psychological as physical. The writing seemed on the wall.

Even this reporter, a big Cleverly fan who has covered his career since the very first fight, thought retirement and life away from boxing was looking like the best option. Even I questioned his heart after the manner of the Bellew defeat, a PPV damp-squib.

And yet, on Saturday night, Nathan Cleverly proved unequivocally even in defeat to Andrzej Fonfana, a fight he only took to prove the naysayers wrong, that the naysayers were wrong. Lacking in heart? Lacking in desire? Not brave enough? You’re having a laugh!

The battle between Fonfana and Cleverly in Chicago was a tremendous fight, a tear-up fought almost entirely on the inside with the duo throwing over 2500 punches, which is a record number.

Cleverly suffered a broken nose, a badly torn and swollen ear and yet he relished the battle against a top operator, choosing to shine in America when he could have been fighting for a world title and fuelling the ridicule and scrutiny.

The former Team Calzaghe fighter was offered a shot at Juergen Braehmer, a world champion yes, but someone who hand picks his opponents and rarely leaves the comfort zone of home fights and home judges.

Had Cleverly faced Braehmer – and he still might – people would have mocked the contest and suggested it was a world title fight between a champion who doesn’t deserve the title against a challenger who doesn’t deserve a shot.

Cleverly knew that and he opted for a far tougher contest against Fonfana knowing that there was no guarantee of it enhancing his career.

The maths whizz took a calculated gamble. On himself.

The rewards will be rich. His bloodied and defiant showing on Friday will have impressed on both sides of the Atlantic and Cleverly will now be matched as he should be; a former world champion with talent and heart to compete at the top level.

In a sport where perception is everything, Cleverly’s losing effort to Fonfana will do more to enhance his future prospects than any of his successful world title defences.