Bellew wants McIntosh out of the way so he can look for another world title shot

By Scott Gilfoid: Having failed at trying to capture a world title against WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly last October in a 12 round majority decision loss, Tony Bellew (16-1, 10 KO’s) will be trying to hold onto his domestic level British light heavyweight strap against former European Boxing Union (EBU) light heavyweight champion Danny McIntosh (13-2, 7 KO’s) on April 14th at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK.

This is kind of an interesting fight between two limited throwers with decent power but fragile chins, average hand speed fair boxing skills. Both are about the same in terms of talent. Bellew is a little younger, taller and is a sparring partner for former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Other than latter, I can’t see anything distinguishable about Bellew’s career. He’s domestic level opposition until fighting Cleverly, and he lost that fight when he ran out of gas in the last couple of rounds.

I’ve seen a lot of McIntosh and while I like how he’s done against the likes of Thierry Karl and Tony Oakey, he’s failed miserably when stepping it up against better opposition. McIntosh was knocked out in the 7th round by Cleverly in July 2009, and then stopped in the 8th by the talented Eduard Gutknecht last May. McIntosh lost his EBU title in that fight when he was bludgeoned into submission and ultimately turned his back after getting hit with some big shots from Gutknecht.

Speaking with caldwellboxing.com, Bellew said “Danny McIntosh is a very capable fighter in his own right, but I must get him out of the way on April 14 if I am to hold on to my belt and work my way towards another world title shot.”

Bellew got picked out from the #13 spot to face Cleverly last time out. He’s now ranked #15 by the WBO, and I reckon that he’ll still likely get another shot even if he stays right where he is. I mean, look at Cleverly: In his two title defenses of his WBO belt, he’s faced #13 Bellew and now he’s fighting #10 Tommy Karpency. What does that tell you? We could see Cleverly turning around and picking from the bottom once again to fight Bellew before you know instead of a top five contender.

4 Responses to “Bellew wants McIntosh out of the way so he can look for another world title shot”