Bellew: I deserve to be champion on November 30th

By Boxing News - 11/27/2013 - Comments

bellew2By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew (20-1-1, 12 KO’s) thinks the fact that he was able to KO Edison Miranda while Andre Ward couldn’t, proves that he’s a top fighter and capable of beating WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (22-1, 19 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Bellew said to Sky Sports “He [Miranda] fought Andre Ward two fights before me and Ward couldn’t stop him. I stopped him and still got a ton of criticism for is. Andre Ward is the kingpin but he couldn’t stop Miranda. I deserve to be champion on November 30th.”

Let me get this right. So Bellew stops Miranda and that means that Bellew beats Stevenson and deserves to be the WBC light heavyweight champion? Gee, I wonder where Bellew gets this twisted logic from? Bellew beats Miranda, so therefore Bellew beats Stevenson too.

First of all, Ward didn’t fight Miranda two fights before Bellew, as he says he did. Ward fought Miranda THREE YEARS before Bellew did, not two fights. Ward defeated Miranda in 2009 by a 12 round unanimous decision in winning by the scores 119-109, 116-112 and 119-109. That was a better version of Miranda than the one that fought Bellew in 2012. Also, Miranda was stopped in three rounds by Lucian Bute a year later in 2010, so does that mean Bute is in the same class as Ward?

The reason why Bellew took so much heat in stopping Miranda in 9 rounds last year in September was because that was a really tough fight for Bellew with him having to eat a lot of big shots from Miranda. Bellew looked timid for the first 8 rounds before stopping a clearly tired Miranda in the 9th. It was no impressive stuff at all from Bellew.

After stopping Miranda, Bellew got really emotional, as if he had beaten a top fighter. Bellew’s water works seemed out of proportion to what he had just accomplished. I could understand making a big production about a win if Bellew had beaten Ward, but for him to get all excited about a victory over a former middleweight like Miranda, it just seemed like Bellew had set the bar low for himself in terms of his expectations.

The fact is it really doesn’t matter that Bellew was able to stop Miranda, because on Saturday night Bellew is going to be facing a much better fighter in Stevenson. Sure, Bellew can extrapolate from what he did with Miranda and figure that he can do the same type of number against Stevenson, but I don’t think that’s how it works in the real world. Maybe in a dream where Bellew has Stevenson and Miranda neck and neck in terms of talent, but that’s not what’s happening in reality. The reality is Bellew’s victory over Miranda will mean exactly jack on Saturday night. Bellew will get in the ring with a much faster and more powerful fighter in Stevenson and he’ll have shots bouncing off of his chin left and right, while the huge pro-Stevenson crowd at the Colisee de Quebec will be cheering Stevenson on the entire time.



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