Tony Bellew crows about win, wants Lebedev

By Boxing News - 05/29/2016 - Comments

bellew665By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) hit the jackpot tonight and it immediately went to his head from the looks of it. First off, Bellew beat an inexperienced Ilunga Makabu (19-2, 18 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout to claim the vacant WBC cruiserweight title in front of a bunch of Bellew’s fans at Goodison Park Stadium in Liverpool, England.

Immediately after the win, Bellew started running around the ring, crowing about his win over Makabu and saying ”I’m the best cruiserweight in the world now. Denis Lebedev, he can come and get it. I’m the best cruiserweight in the world!

I hate to drizzle on Bellew’s parade, but he’s not the best cruiserweight in the world, I hate to say. Bellew is merely one of paper champions in the division. Heck, there’s three champions in the cruiserweight division right now and those are Bellew [WBC], Denis Lebedev [IBF/WBA] and Krzystof Glowacki [WBO]. Right now, it comes down to Glowacki and Lebedev as who the best fighter is in the division. It might not even be either of those guys though. #1 WBO Oleasandr Usyk, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, is seen by many as the best fighter in the division. There’s also Murat Gassiev, an unbeaten fighter from Kazakhstan with one-punch power, who fights out of the same gym as Gennady Golovkin.

Gassiev is no joke. His power is out of this world. If you thought Makabu can punch, take a look at the power of Gassiev. That guy can punch the lights out of anyone in the division with single shots.

“No one has ever done that to Makabu before,” Bellew bragged afterwards.

I think you’re wrong, Bellew. Someone has done that to Makabu before and his name is Khayeni Hlungwane (7-10, 4 KOs), and he knocked Makabu out in the 1st round. If you do the math, I think a 1st round knockout is a heck of a lot better than a 3rd round knockout, don’t you think? The fact of the matter is Makabu HAS been knocked out early before in his career, and it was only a matter of time before he was knocked out early again. Makabu is a slow starter and Bellew is a faster starter.

It was a perfect situation for Bellew. When you throw in the fact that Makabu has a questionable chin, then that explains why Bellew was able to KO him tonight. A fighter with a good chin and capable of fighting well right off the bat, likely would have beaten Bellew badly tonight, but he had inexperienced slow starter with a chin problem in there with him. As such, Bellew got an easy victory over a flawed fighter with a pumped up record filled with a lot of fodder opposition. There it is. That’s why Bellew won tonight.

“They got me up off the floor,” Bellew said about the fans at Goodison Park.

Bellew is not the best fighter in the cruiserweight division, I must say. Until Bellew whips Usyuk, Gassiev, Lebedev, Beibut Shumenov, Marco Huck, Glowacki, Drowzd, Briedis, Thomas Williams Jr, Yunier Dorticos, he can’t say he’s the best in the division. I’m not holding my breath waiting for Bellew to fight all of them. I’m not even holding my breath waiting for Bellew to fight any of them, because I don’t even see him ever fighting Lebedev despite him saying he wants to fight him.

“I am the best cruiserweight in the world. I’m the WBC champion of the world,” said Bellew. “Every time I hit him, I could feel it. I caught him in the 1st round and he winced a little bit. When I’m fighting in this place, I’m the closest thing to being unbeatable to Floyd Mayweather. I came in here a challenger and I came out a champion of the world,” said Bellew.
Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn was asked who he would like to match Bellew up against next, and he said “Lebedev in a unification fight.”

If by chance Hearn does make the Bellew vs. Lebedev fight next, no way do I see Bellew winning that fight. Lebedev is a very talented fighter and he’s got major power. They can put the fight back at Goodison Park Stadium, and I see Bellew getting blasted out.

Bellew should be happy that he got the win tonight against Makabu. He shouldn’t press his luck by looking to scale the real mountains by taking on a talent like Lebedev. I’m just wondering why Hearn didn’t mention Glowaki? Doesn’t that make you wonder? The 29-year-old Glowacki looks better than the soon to be 37-year-old Lebedev right now, and he’s a heck of a lot younger too.

I wonder if Hearn and Bellew are targeting Lebedev because he’s getting up there in age. Why aren’t they mentioning Glowacki or Drowzd’s name? Why aren’t they mentioning Usyk? I think Lebedev easily beats Bellew even if the fight takes place years from now. The southpaw Lebedev is just too talented, too powerful and too experienced for the likes of Bellew. That’s my prediction. But overall prediction remains the same; I don’t see Bellew facing Lebedev. I think he’s going to milk the WBC title for as long as he can until he faces a good mandatory challenger and loses his title to that fighter. It might take couple of fights for that to happen. No more than that. I can’t see Bellew being able to hold onto his WBC title even if he milks the title unless the World Boxing Council lets him fight non-top ranked fighters. In other words, if the WBC lets Bellew face 2nd tier guys rather than contenders.

It was kind of interesting for me to watch Hearn and Bellew after the fight. Hearn looked like he was on cloud nine. I’m not sure if Hearn thought Bellew would really win or not, but he looked out of his world happy. It gives Hearn another world champion in his Matchroom Sport stable. I’m just wondering now whether Hearn will make Bellew’s future fights on Sky Box Office PPV like with Anthony Joshua. If he does, I can only see that experiment lasting as long as Bellew keeps winning, which I don’t think for very long if he gets matched up with anyone good.