By Scott Gilfoid: Former world title challenger Tony Bellew (24-2-1, 15 KOs) says he wants to score a really impressive vicious knockout against whoever he winds up facing this Saturday night in his tune-up fight at the First Direct Arena, Leeds, UK. Bellew, 32, is scheduled for an 8 round fight, but his opponent still isn’t known at this point.
It really doesn’t matter that they haven’t announced who Bellew’s next victim will be, because it’s going to be someone way out of his class, so they can announce the fight the day of fight and it won’t matter.
Bellew’s fight will take place on the undercard of the featherweight clash between unbeaten Josh Warrington vs. Joel Brunker.
“Expect a vicious knockout. Expect a vicious, nasty knockout,” Bellew said via skysports.com. “That’s ultimately what I’m going for. I’m not waiting around in this one. I’m not sick or unwell. I’m fit and I’m sharp and I’m expecting to take this guy’s head clean off his shoulders.”
Well, it would be nice if Bellew were to look impressive against the actual contenders in the cruiserweight division rather than the likely poor sap that his promoter Eddie Hearn drags into the ring to have Bellew fight on Saturday night. But then again, we’re still waiting for Bellew to fight his first talented cruiserweight contender. I mean, Bellew has been fighting in the cruiserweight division now since March 2014, and he still hasn’t faced any of the talented contenders like Olesandr Usyk, Rakhim Chakhkiev, Krzystof Wlodarczyk, Thabiso Mchunu, Dmitry Kudryashov, Ola Afolabi, Victor Ramirez, Noel Gevor and Ilunga Makabu.
That’s a lot guys that Bellew has seemingly been steered around by Hearn with his match-making. I mean, how do you not match Bellew against at least one of those guys during all this time. I can understand why Hearn hasn’t put Bellew in with any of them, but he’s not going him any favors by matching him against weak opposition every time out, because it’s not going to help Bellew at all. Those are prerequisite opposition that you need to be able to beat before you get to guys like Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Grigory Drozd, Denis Lebedev and Krzysztof Glowacki. If this was school, the classes that Bellew has been taking are basic beginning algebra, whereas he needs to be taking calculus so that he can start his engineering courses and not wind up totally lost. The easy path that Bellew has been given isn’t helping him any improve enough to get ready for what he’s going to face when he gets in the ring with the likes of Yoan Pablo Hernandez.
If I was promoting Bellew, I would have gotten it over with first thing to see if he’s right for the cruiserweight division. I’d put him in with Usyk or Kudryashov, and if he was blasted out in a couple of rounds like I think he would, I’d have a long talk with him about him either retiring or moving back down to the light heavyweight division where he belongs.
“If I can beat Mr. [Yoan Pablo] Hernandez then to me, it makes me the best cruiserweight in the world and that’s all I ever wanted to be; the best fighter in the world at my chosen weight division,” Bellew said. “That’s the guy I’m aiming for. He’s the longest reigning champion and the best champion.”
Oh Boy, Bellew is starting to sound like he’s really deluded. I hate to break the bad news to Bellew, but if he beats Hernandez, he would only be beating what many boxing fans see as the paper champion of the bunch in terms of the four cruiserweight champions. Hernandez is seen by a lot of fans as the weak link among the cruiserweight champions. The strong champions are considered to be Denis Lebedev, Grigory Drozd and Krzysztof Glowacki. As such, if Bellew beats Yoan Pablo Hernandez, he’ll just be the new paper champion, and certainly not the best fighter in the division. The thing of it is some of the contenders in the division like Usyk and Kudryashov might even be better than all of the current cruiserweight world champions. I rate Usyk as a better fighter than all of the existing champions, and Kudryashov has got the punching power to beat all four of them if he connects with one of his big shots.
Comments are closed.