By Scott Gilfoid: Liverpool’s Tony Bellew (20-1-1, 12 KO’s) believes he’s covered all his bases recently with his training for his November 30th fight against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (22-1, 19 KO’s) at the Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Bellew is an underdog in the fight, and will be facing Stevenson in his home country for this fight. It’s probably going to take next to a miracle for Bellew to finish the fight on his feet because Stevenson has been knocking out everyone he’s faced lately.
Bellew said on his twitter:
Coming to the end of a very hard week of training.. I'm in great shape and am well prepared for every situation that can be forced upon me!
— Tony Bellew (@TonyBellew) November 1, 2013
I don’t know of how Bellew can possibly have covered all the different situations that he’ll be presented in the Stevenson fight. If Bellew is talking about how he’ll react to getting hit by Stevenson’s blazing fast and huge shots, then I don’t see how he prepare for that. About the best that Bellew can plan to deal with Stevenson’s speed and power advantage is for him to stay on the outside and run all night. Bellew won’t last more than a round or two if he tries to trade with Stevenson like he normally does with his opponents.
In Bellew’s last fight against Isaac Chilemba, Bellew turned the into a 12 round hug-fest that kept Chilemba from using his superior hand speed and counter punching ability to dominate Bellew like he did in their first fight.
If Bellew plans on using that tactic against Stevenson then I see this fight lasting just one round before Stevenson nails Bellew with a hard left hand in close and knocks him out. The holding and smothering won’t work for Bellew against a talented fighter like Stevenson because he’s capable of throwing punches with incredible power from short distances. Stevenson also has a nice uppercut that he likes to use against fighters that crowd him. If you watch Stevenson’s recent victory over Darnell Boone, you’ll see how Stevenson handled Boone’s attempt to smother him on the inside by nailing him with huge uppercuts that had Boone in trouble.
Stevenson has looked unbeaten in his recent wins over Tavoris Cloud, Chad Dawson, Boone, Don George and Noe Gonzalez Alcoba. He gave each one of those guys a severe beating in winning easy fights. The thing is I could see Cloud and Dawson beating Bellew. And I think George and Boone would give Bellew a great deal of problems. I do think Bellew would beat Alcoba after eating some mammoth shots from him, but it wouldn’t be a cake walk for him.
There’s really only one plan that Bellew can use to try and survive against Stevenson for any length of time and that’s by staying on the outside, using his jab and moving constantly. If Bellew can do all of those things than I can see him hanging around for a little while before Stevenson catches up to him and stops him in the 7th or 8th rounds. But I don’t see there being any way for Bellew to win rounds or win the fight. He’s just too far out of his class in this fight to beat a talent like Stevenson.
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