Bellew to face Stevenson-Cloud winner in November

By Boxing News - 07/25/2013 - Comments

bellew22By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC, Tony Bellew (20-1, 12 KO’s) is now locked in to face the winner of the September fight between WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson and Tavoris Cloud, according to the BBC Sport. Bellew will fight the winner of that bout possibly on November 30th.

Bellew doesn’t match up well at all with Stevenson, so I imagine he’s hoping that Cloud is the guy he’s going to be facing in November because Stevenson would be a nightmare opponent for him.

Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn to the BBC Sport “I am delighted Tony has got the shot, and what a perfect potential date for it. Tony has worked tirelessly to get a second crack at a world title and he’s ready to claim it.”

Bellew defeated Isaac Chilemba by a 12 round unanimous decision last May to lock himself in for the title shot against the Stevenson vs. Cloud winner. It was an ugly fight with Bellew clinching, wrestling and smothering Chilemba all 12 rounds.

It looked like Bellew figured he didn’t have the speed to beat Chilemba on the outside, so he took the fight to the inside and turned it into an ugly wrestling match that made it difficult to score the rounds. Had Chilemba any kind of inside fighting skills, Bellew would have been in trouble because he was awful on the inside as well.

I suspect Bellew will use the wrestling/clinching/smothering style against both Cloud and Stevenson in November. There’s no way Bellew can beat a fighter like Stevenson on the outside due to his lack of hand speed and mediocre defense. Cloud would give Bellew tons of problems as well with his high work rate and his hard shots. I can’t see Bellew winning that fight either unless it’s turned into a wrestling match.

If the referee is doing his job, he’ll keep Bellew from doing all that clinching and holding by taking points away, but it’s a rare referee that does this. Most of them just allow it and just keep breaking the fighters up over and over. It would make their job easier if they simply started taking points off after the 3rd warning. I’d rather that happen than to see another wrestling match.



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