By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) is making it very clear that he wants to fight heavyweight David Haye, and he thinks he can beat the 35-year-old former two-division world champion. It looks like Bellew wants the fight against Haye soon.
Unfortunately for Bellew, Haye is already booked up with a fight against 44-year-old Shannon Briggs for September. If Bellew wants to fight Haye, he’s going to need to either wait until near the end of 2016 or face him in 2017. That’s not a good deal for Bellew to wait until next year to take the fight against Haye because it would mean that Bellew will need to defend his WBC title against Grigory Drozd or Mairis Briedis.
Those are fights that Bellew would have a very, very good chance of losing. Those guys aren’t flawed like Bellew’s last opponent Ilunga Makabu. Bellew would be under serious bombardment from those fighters, and it would be a scenario where he would be reliving the 1st round of his fight against Makabu over and over again.
“Stop fighting the clowns you’re fighting, conning the British public. Come and fight me. Let’s have a real fight,” said Bellew to skysports.com. “A current world champion and the best cruiserweight in the world is calling you out. I’m not even calling you out – I’ll beat you. Simple as that.”
Bellew needs to keep talking because the fight against Haye, which I don’t think he would have any chance of winning, is his only shot at a huge payday right now. Bellew says he’s interested in facing IBF/WBA cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev, but that’s not a huge money fight. It’s also one that might not be doable because Bellew wants Lebedev to come to the UK to fight him, and I don’t see Bellew agreeing to that.
Lebedev is a star in Russia and he doesn’t need to come to the UK and fight in front of a large audience of Bellew fans.
Bellew stopped Ilunga Makabu in the 3rd round last Sunday night to win the vacant WBC cruiserweight title at Goodison Park Stadium in Liverpool, England. Ever since beating Makabu, Bellew has been saying he’s the best cruiserweight in the division.
Bellew wasn’t fighting a guy that is considered the best fighter in the cruiserweight division, so it’s hard to understand why he would claim he’s now the best fighter in the division despite the fact that he still hasn’t proven it yet. To prove that he’s the best fighter in the division, it will take time for Bellew to fight all the top guys starting with either Briedis or Drozd if he can’t get his money fight against Haye.
“I want the fight because I want to shut him up. I want to be the person to put him back in the same box he crawled out of after he cried about having a sore toe, pulling out of fights being scared to face Tyson Fury,” said Bellew.
I think Haye is interested in facing Bellew from the sound of it. Haye posted an Instagram message this week saying he’ll fight him if he keeps talking trash. Haye needs fights like this because if he faces any of the really talented heavyweight contenders, he could lose and that would ruin his chances of getting a fight against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Bellew, 33, has got to do something to get a big payday fight and Haye is definitely his best option. Like I said, it’s a race against time for Bellew. He’s got to fight Haye in his next fight because his WBC mandatory is due already in his first defense. The only way for Bellew to swerve that defense is a unification fight against Lebedev, or to take the fight against Haye, which I think the WBC would then strip Bellew of his title for bailing on his mandatory defense.
Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn could always ask the WBC to let Bellew get a voluntary defense, but I don’t think he’s supposed to be allowed one under the current circumstances with Bellew winning a vacant title rather than a belt off a champion. He’s supposed to fight the mandatory challenger in his next fight.