By Keith Idec

Sullivan Barrera hasn’t wasted any time calling out who he wants to fight next.

Barrera sent a Twitter message to WBA world light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, on Monday morning. The Cuban-born Barrera (20-1, 14 KOs), who overcame a first-round knockdown to beat Joe Smith Jr. (23-2, 19 KOs) in impressive fashion Saturday night in Inglewood, California, urged Cleverly not to fight a “fake” light heavyweight and challenged him to come to the United States to fight him at Madison Square Garden.

Barrera Tweeted: @EddieHearn @NathanClev lets get it on bring the #brits to @TheGarden @HBOboxing will make fight NO fight a fake lightheavy #legacy

Challenging Cleverly clearly makes sense for the 35-year-old Barrera, but it probably would do better business by taking a Cleverly-Barrera bout to Wales, Cleverly’s home country. Russia’s Sergey Kovalev traveled to Cardiff, the Welsh capital, to take the WBO light heavyweight championship from Cleverly in August 2013.

Barrera and Kovalev both are promoted by New Jersey-based Main Events. Now that he has beaten Smith, Barrera also could be a prime candidate to face Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) in the former light heavyweight champion’s return to the ring, which Main Events chief executive officer Kathy Duva has said will take place sometime in November.

Cleverly (30-3, 16 KOs) stopped Germany’s Juergen Braehmer (48-3, 35 KOs) after the sixth round October 1 in Neubrandenburg, Germany, to win the WBA world 175-pound championship. Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs) is the WBA’s “undisputed” light heavyweight champion.

The 30-year-old Cleverly could fight Kyrgyzstan’s Dmitry Bivol (11-0, 9 KOs) in his next fight. Bivol, 26, owns the WBA’s interim light heavyweight title and could’ve been the fighter to whom Barrera referred as a “fake” light heavyweight, as in a fake light heavyweight title-holder.

Barrera is ranked No. 3 by the WBA among its light heavyweight contenders.

Miami’s Barrera won the WBC’s international light heavyweight title by beating Smith, who’s ranked No. 3 by the WBC, and will move up from his current No. 6 spot in the WBC’s ratings. That also could make Barrera an option to face the winner of a fall fight between WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) and mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.