Bellew: I’m coming to take Adonis Stevenson’s titles

By Boxing News - 09/29/2013 - Comments

stevenson54By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBO, Tony Bellew (20-1-1, 12 KO’s) got a chance to witness the savage beating that WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (22-1, 19 KO’s) gave to Tavoris Cloud (24-2, 19 KO’s) last night in halting him after the 7th round at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

Instead of being scared off, Bellew is sounding like he’s even more confident of his chances of beating the 36-year-old Stevenson. It’s difficult to imagine Bellew doing any better than Cloud did, though, because Bellew just struggled through two fights against Isaac Chilemba.

Bellew had major problems with Chilemba’s hand speed, and it wasn’t until their second fight that Bellew was able to gain a slight advantage by holding and clinching Chilemba all night.

Bellew said on his twitter “So Stevenson won. I’ll be back here soon enough though and believe me when I come back here I’m taking his belts home with me! Let’s see if Superman is aa tough as they say cause I have a feeling he doesn’t know. I’m ready.”

I think holding will be Bellew’s main strategy against Stevenson, because that’s pretty much the only thing he can really do against him. If Bellew stays on the outside, Stevenson will post shot him all night long with his quick and powerful left hands.

Bellew is too slow to fight Stevenson on the outside. It would be a slaughter and I don’t think it would go the full 12 rounds, because we’ve already saw Bellew taste the canvas twice against an arguably much lesser fighter than Stevenson in his first fight against Ovill McKenzie in December 2010.

Bellew was beaten by former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in 2011. The thing is Cleverly wouldn’t likely make it 4 rounds against Stevenson before getting knocked out. Stevenson would massacre him. Bellew even had problems beating Edison Miranda in their fight last year in September.

Although Bellew did get the stoppage in the 9th, he looked timid for the first 7 rounds after tasting some of Miranda’s power. It was only after Miranda gassed out and stopped throwing as many punches that Bellew was able to take charge of the fight.

I hate to say it but I think Bellew is going to be obliterated by Stevenson when they face each other in early 2014. Like I said, about the only thing Bellew can do is to try and hold Stevenson all night long to keep him being able to use his fast hands.

It’s going to be tough for Bellew to do that because if a Canadian referee is installed for the Bellew-Stevenson fight in Montreal, then he’s not going to let Bellew get away with holding like he did in his last fight against Chilemba in London, UK.

The Canadian referee likely won’t let Bellew maul Stevenson all night long with his ugly holding. The referee will keep pulling Bellew off of him, and each time that happens, Stevenson will nail Bellew with a hard left hand to the head and then quickly move away. Bellew will have to take some vicious shots each time he gets close to start with his holding and wrestling. I can definitely see points being taken away from Bellew if he chooses to clinch too much, and possibly we might even see a disqualification of him if he holds a little too much.

This isn’t going to be a UK fight. Stevenson is the star here, and there’s no way that Bellew will be able to get away with all that God awful holding that he did against Chilemba, and he shouldn’t get away with it. This is boxing, not MMA or Pro Wrestling.

If Bellew wants to beat Stevenson then he’s going to have to do it the old fashioned way by beating him by slugging with him or boxing him. I can’t see a slow fighter like Bellew winning a decision against Stevenson in Montreal. I don’t see that happening. Even if the referee lets Bellew hold Stevenson all night long, Bellew is not going to win a decision fighting like that. Let’s face it; his only chance of beating Stevenson is to do what Darnell Boone did in his first fight with Stevenson and that’s to knock him out with a big power shot.



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