By Scott Gilfoid: Cruiserweight Tony Bellew (26-2-1, 16 KOs) says he has his toughest fight of his on May 29 against Ilunga Makabu (19-1, 18 KOs) at Goodison Park Stadium in Liverpool, UK. Bellew and Makabu will be fighting for the vacant WBC cruiserweight title in this fight. Bellew has the hometown advantage but he’s really up against it in this fight.
Bellew says he’s got a plan of how he wants to deal with the hard hitting Makabu. He says he’s going to keep him on the outside and nail him with shots. I’m not sure if that’s going to work too well though because Makabu is another Adonis Stevenson type of knockout artist who is good at getting in punching range to land his big power shots.
“So I’m going to have to nail him to keep him off. I’m going to have to keep him at range, use my skills and use my feet, and I believe when I keep landing I will break him down and I will stop him,” said Bellew to skysports.com.
I think that sounds like a pipe dream on Bellew’s part in thinking he’s going to stop Makabu. Bellew just finished going life and death with a fighter that is clearly levels below Makabu in Mateusz Masternak, who Bellew had problems with last December in winning a narrow 12 round decision.
Bellew won the fight, but it was very, very close. That fight showed you where Bellew’s level is at in the cruiserweight division. He is obviously a good fringe level guy with an inflated ranking, but there is no way that Bellew is going to be able to compete with the top fighters in the division like Makabu, Olesandr Usyk, Denis Lebedev and Kzstof Glowacki
“This is the most dangerous fight of my career without a shadow of a doubt,” Bellew said. “The last thing Ilunga Makabu is going to expect is power and speed and they’re two things I carry as a cruiserweight, so on May 29 I become WBC champion of the world.”
Bellew isn’t fast, and he’s not one of the harder punchers in the cruiserweight division. The big punchers in this division are fighters like Glowacki, Lebedev, Usyk, and Marco Huck.
Bellew is more like a pumped up light heavyweight. Bellew is not even a pumped up cruiserweight. He’s more like a fighter that ate his way to cruiserweight. He’s not a solid cruiserweight and I can’t see him doing well at all against Makabu on May 29.
Makabu is a bigger puncher than Adonis Stevenson, and Bellew was getting knocked all over the place when he fought him. It was a total mismatch. Bellew did okay for a round or two before the beating started, and things went quickly downhill for him.
Like I’ve said before, I think Bellew would have been better off if he’d taken this fight outside of his home city and instead had it take place in Makabu’s home country in South Africa. At least if Bellew fought over there, he would be playing it safe and not being encouraged to brawl by his home fans.