Nathan Cleverly has spoken of a potential light-heavyweight unification bout with veteran champion Bernard Hopkins later this year.

The Welshman, who makes the second defence of his WBO strap against Tommy Karpency in Cardiff tonight, ranks the 47-year-old as "one of the greatest champions in history".

"He's a legend of the sport so I'll refer to Bernard as Mr. Hopkins," the 25-year-old told The Telegraph after yesterday's weigh in. "He's lost to one Welshman already - my former gym-mate Joe Calzaghe - which is no disgrace, as he's Britain's greatest ever boxer. But if Joe was the master, then Mr. Hopkins must now face the student.

"Hopkins has unfinished business with Dawson to settle first and we'll see what happens, but I want to fight him. He's one of the greatest champions in history and has extraordinary achievements in the sport, but I want to be the best so I've got to face the best and that's Mr Hopkins."

Cleverly revealed that Tavoris Cloud, who retained his IBF crown against Gabriel Campillo last week, is also in his crosshairs.

"I wasn't overly impressed with Cloud's performance against Campillo and thought he may have lost it," he added. "He is probably the easiest to beat out there, so I'd like to take his unbeaten record and IBF belt."

Cleverly, one of Britain's two world champions, won the WBO light-heavyweight title against Poland's Aleksy Kuziemski in May last year.