Bellew can’t afford to lose fight on June 26th

By Boxing News - 05/21/2015 - Comments

bellew1By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBO, #8 IBF, #10 WBA cruiserweight contender Tony Bellew (23-2-1, 14 KO) is in a position where he can’t afford to lose his next fight on June 26th against a still to be determined opponent at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

If the 32-year-old Bellew loses this fight, he can kiss goodbye his world title shot against one of the cruiserweight champions. I don’t expect Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn to put him in with anyone good. I suspect it’ll be either a 2nd tier fighter or some bottom dweller from the No.14 of No.15 spot in the division. Hearn isn’t going to risk Bellew’s hide by putting him in with anyone remotely good in my view.

When/if Bellew does get his title shot, he’ll be facing either WBO champ Marco Huck or IBF champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez. The World Boxing Organization has given Bellew a huge break by ranking him at No.2 based on his wins over fluff opposition at cruiserweight.

Believe it or not, the WBO has Bellew ranked above Ilunga Makabu, Olesandr Usyk, Rakhim Chakhkiev, and Thabiso Mchunu. If you’ve seen those guys fight before, you’ll no doubt be wondering what the WBO is thinking in putting Bellew above them in their rankings.

It just makes no sense and it reflects badly on the WBO. I do believe Bellew is a top 15 contender, but I see him well past the No.10 spot, closer to No.14 or No.15 in the division. But putting Bellew at No.2 makes absolutely no sense when you see how average he looked in his recent fights against Nathan Cleverly, Julio Cesar Dos Santos and Valery Brudov.

“They [Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Marco Huck] are the best in the division, so the man Tony is going to fight for a world title is going to be a good fighter,” Bellew’s trainer Dave Coldwell said to Skysports.com. “It will be a very hard and tough fight, but if Tony beats the man he faces then he can hold his head up high.”

I don’t rate Hernandez as a champion, because he’s very flawed and has a chin and stamina problems. But I think Huck is very good, and I see champion Denis Lebedev as good as well. I think the contenders Usyk, Makabu, Mchunu and Chakhkiev are all better than the current world champions. Even if Bellew were to take on Hernandez, who I see as a paper champion, and beat him, Bellew would have to face one of the good contenders sooner or later. The IBF is obviously the way to go for Bellew because they only have Chakhkiev ranked in their top 15, and don’t have Usyk, Makabu and Mchunu ranked. This means that if Bellew were able to win the IBF strap, he’d only have to worry about beating Chakhkiev. If he could beat him, which I don’t think he can, Bellew might have a chance of going on a long title-milking run for a couple of years.



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