NATHAN Cleverly is used to outwitting his opponents by relying on his superior intellect, but he may just have met his match in American Tommy Karpency.

The battler from Pennsylvania is a huge underdog in the eyes of the bookies, but there is little to choose between the fighters when it comes to records, backgrounds or education, inside and outside of the ring.

Undefeated 25-year old WBO light heavyweight champion Cleverly lives up to his nickname of ‘Clever Boy’ having earned a degree in Pure Mathematics from Cardiff University.

Trained by his father Vince in Bargoed, the Cefn Fforest fighter is used to humble surroundings and a quiet community once world renowned for coal mining.

And there might be some 5000 miles between Cefn Fforest and the tiny Pennsylvania town of Adah, but the similarities between the two punchers are clear for all to see.

Like Cleverly, his father, Tommy Sr, trains Karpency. And like Cleverly, Karpency went into higher education, earning a degree in Nursing before turning professional, losing just once in his career.

“I live in very rural area, a town called Adah, a former coal-mining town with now only 150 people,” he explained. “I hear people say Wales is a big coal-mining place as well but from the evidence of what I have seen, Wales is doing a lot better than we are, times are very, very tough.

“I’ve never been to the UK before but Cardiff is the nicest place I have ever been too in my life. Cardiff is beautiful, I’ve been well received here and there are all kind of things to do.”

Karpency insists he’s not just here to enjoy a vacation, even though he certainly deserves one. As well as being a boxing contender, he works 40-hour weeks as a psychiatric nurse.

“This is a big chance for me, the pinnacle of our sport and I will give it all I have, it certainly beats the day job,” he said.

“I have a degree in nursing and actually specialise in psychiatric nursing and for me it’s a full-time job, I work 40 hours a week with patients in an acute state of illness. I am pretty busy, juggling the two things and I improvise the best I can to find the time to train. The hardest thing is to balance my two lives.

“We deal with belligerent and aggressive patients all the time but that’s good practice for the challenges in the ring!”

Karpency has been told about the huge weekend of sport for Wales with the Six Nations and Cardiff’s trip to Wembley, but he confesses he is more interested in matters concerning Ben Roesthlisberger and Kurt Angle than Sam Warburton or Robert Earnshaw.

“I wrestled for two years at High School, straight to the Varsity level and I had a good record. But my brothers are far better wrestlers, it ran in the family,” he said.

“I didn’t know much about Nathan the person before today. When you are a light heavyweight contender of course you know all about the world champions and so from that sense I was familiar with him.

“I don’t know the rules of rugby, it’s a physical sport and it looks pretty entertaining I’ve got to say. But where I am from it’s NFL football, the Pittsburgh Steelers and we also support the Pittsburgh Penguins in ice hockey.”

One similarity that is inescapable is the respective bonds between father and son, both boxers trained by their dads.

“My father and I have a great relationship, in the gym he is my trainer and outside of the ring he’s a mentor and has guided me through life, I owe everything to him. He’s the reason why I am here.”