By Terence Dooley

According to BoxingScene's sources, the November 22 rematch between Liverpool's Tony Bellew and Welshman Nathan Cleverly will not be a final eliminator for the WBO cruiserweight title, as the winner will have to fight a further eliminator contest before becoming mandatory challenger for the world title held by Germany's Marco Huck.

Bellew and Cleverly are rated at five and six respectively in the WBO's September ratings.  Their 12-round non-title fight at Liverpool's Echo Arena should boost the winner up the rankings, but they will have to have an interim bout before becoming mandatory challenger unless promoter Eddie Hearn can persuade Huck to voluntarily put his title on the line.

Cleverly, 28-1 (14), beat Bellew, 22-2-1 (14), by majority decision in a WBO light-heavyweight title defence in October 2011.  “The Bomber” bounced back, working his way to a WBC world title challenge against Adonis Stevenson last November (L TKO 6).

Cleverly lost his belt in August of last year, a fourth-round TKO to Sergey Kovalev; he has since registered a brace of stoppage wins (W TKO 2 Shawn Corbin and W TKO 4 Alejandro Emilio Valori respectively).

The 27-year-old left former promoter Frank Warren in the aftermath of the Kovalev defeat, joining Bellew in Hearn's Matchroom team to set the ball rolling on their rematch.  Bellew, 31, has hammered Valery Brudov (KO 12) and Julio Cesar Dos Santos (TKO 5) since moving to 200lbs; the addition of Cleverly to both his promotional stable and division meant that the rematch became inevitable.  It will be shown live and exclusive on Sky Sports PPV.

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