By Scott Gilfoid: Cruiserweight Tony Bellew (25-2-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting #6 WBO, #7 WBA, #9 IBF, #15 WBC Mateusz Masternak (36-3, 26 KOs) in a scheduled 12 round fight on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte fight card next month on December 12th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn says that Bellew wanted a real opponent for his fight on the Joshua-Whyte card, and he feels that the 28-year-old Poland born Masternak is a real opponent despite the fact that he was recently beaten by Johnny Muller, Youri Kayembre Kalenga and Grigory Drozd.
If you’re familiar with Muller, he was recently knocked out in 3 rounds by Oleksandr Usyk last August. So in other words, Hearn has matched Bellew up against a guy that was beaten by Muller, who in turn was destroyed by Usyk in just three rounds.
Kalenga was recently beaten by Denis Lebedev. So what are we supposed to think about Masternak after knowing all that? I mean, I’d rather see Bellew fight the guys that recently beat Masternak then fighting him.
“Tony Bellew wanted a real fight, and Masternak is a real fighter, and that card [on December 12th] is getting bigger, bigger and bigger,” Hearn said to IFL TV about Bellew fighting fringe contender Masternak on the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte card at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
I don’t agree that the Bellew-Masternak match-up is a “real fight,” but then again, I know who the good fighters are in the cruiserweight division, so I’m not going to get excited about a fluff fight between Bellew and a guy like Masternak. A “real fight” to me would be for Hearn to match Bellew up against Oleksandr Usyk, Ilunga Makabu, Olanrewaja Durodola, Marco Huck, Thabiso Mchunu, Ola Afolabi, Krzystof Glowaki, Denis Lebedev, Grigory Drozd or Beibut Shumenov.
If I were to pick one fighter that I’d like to see Hearn match Bellew up against right now on December 12th, it would be Usyk. That’s it. I’m not asking for much, am I? Just match Bellew up against Usyk, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, and I’d be totally happy. I mean, if Bellew is as good as Hearn thinks he is, then why doesn’t he test his belief in him by putting him in with Usyk?
It’s not as if Bellew won’t run into that guy sooner or later in the division, because I get the feeling that Usyk will be around for a long, long time. But I’m not going to get excited just because Hearn has decided to match Bellew up against #3 WBO, #6 IBF, #10 WBA, #12 WBC Masternak, because the guy has already been exposed by Muller, Kalenga and Drozd in the past.
The Bellew vs. Masternak fight could have the European cruiserweight title on the line for the fight. We’ll find out likely by next week if that fight will be on the line.
Bellew, 32, has won his last five fights since moving up to the cruiserweight division in 2014. Thus far, he’s beaten Julio Cesar Dos Santos, Valery Brudov, Ivica Bacurin, Nathan Cleverly and Arturs Kulikauskis.
The thing is, Bellew hasn’t faced any good cruiserweights as of yet, which is kind of strange because with the way that he’s been yapping, he should be fighting the good fighters in the division instead of this gaud awful bunch.
Sadly, Masternak is a huge leap up in competition from the guys that Hearn has been feeding to Bellew since he moved up to the cruiserweight division. That doesn’t mean that Masternak is a good fighter though. It just means he’s a leap up from the horrible opponents that Bellew has been fighting thus far. Like I said, Masternak was well beaten by Muller last June, and he’s a fighter that Usyk absolutely destroyed last August.
The guy that Bellew and Hearn are targeting in terms of cruiserweight champions is Victor Ramirez, the IBF champion. Ramirez is considered by many boxing fans to be the weak link among the four cruiserweight champions. Clearly, Bellew’s best, and arguably his only, chance of winning a world title in the division would be against the flawed Ramirez, because if you were to put Bellew in with the other champions, I think it would end badly for him. Unfortunately for Bellew, Ramirez is interested in fighting Marco Huck next, and if that happens, you can bet that Ramirez will lose to him. He was beaten badly by Huck six years ago in 2009 in losing a 12 round decision. A second fight between them would likely be far, far worse for Ramirez, because he doesn’t throw a lot of punches and Huck does. Bellew would not match-up well against a fighter like Huck, even though Huck was recently stopped by Krzysztof Glowacki last August in an 11th round knockout loss. Bellew isn’t in the same league as Glowacki in my view. I don’t even see him being close to the talent that Glowacki has.
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