By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks li WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) is going to need to calm down with his talk of fighting David Haye next or even taking a voluntary defense, because his WBC mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis (20-0, 17 KOs) is saying he’s the one that Bellew MUST fight next, not Haye. Breidis, 31, is correct about that.
Bellew just won the vacant WBC cruiserweight title on May 29 with his third round knockout win over #1 WBC Ilunga Makabu in Liverpool, England, and Bellew is now supposed to fight his mandatory challenger Briedis next. In other words, Bellew doesn’t have a voluntary defense for his next fight.
Bellew is supposed to be fighting his WBC mandatory next, which in this case is the hard hitting Briedis. It’s not as if Briedis didn’t earn his mandatory spot, as he knocked out a very good fighter in Olanrewaju Durodola in the 9th round last month on May 14 in their WBC eliminator bout. What’s the good of Briedis winning the mandatory spot if Bellew is just going to do what he pleases and fight Haye or somebody else next? If Bellew is going to be able to skip past Briedis and fight whoever he wants in his next fight, then Briedis might as well have saved himself the trouble and fought in an eliminator bout for one of the other world titles. I’m saying.
“I’m mandatory. Before David Haye, he needs to fight with me. One thing is what you want and the second thing is what you need. They are different things. Maybe he wants to fight with Haye, but he needs to fight with me,” said Briedis via skysports.com.
If Bellew were to fight Haye next, it would be at heavyweight, not at cruiserweight, because Haye can’t make the cruiserweight 200lb limit at this point in his career. Unless the WBC allows Bellew to bypass his mandatory challenger Briedis and freeze his WBC cruiserweight title while he takes the fight with Haye, the title could be stripped from him if he chooses to fight in another division at heavyweight.
The WBC took the WBC light welterweight title from Danny Garcia when he started fighting at catch-weights in the welterweight division. Of course, it took two fights by Garcia at welterweight before the WBC made that move.
Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn recently said this past week that he doesn’t see the Bellew vs. Haye fight taking place until February of 2017. Hearn is hoping the WBC will give Bellew a voluntary defense in his next fight, although he acknowledges that the WBC could make him fight his mandatory next. Hearn is just hoping the WBC will give Bellew a voluntary defense.
Some boxing fans argue that Bellew SHOULD be allowed to be given a voluntary defense in his first defense of his WBC cruiserweight title because WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and former WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez were both allowed to take voluntary defenses in their first fight as WBC champions in their respective divisions.
The difference here is that Wilder and Canelo DID NOT win vacant WBC titles. They beat champions to win those belts. Wilder defeats WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne in January 2015 to capture the title. For his part, Canelo defeated WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in November 2015 to win his title. With Bellew, it’s a different situation. Bellew won a VACANT WBC cruiserweight title in his contest with Makabu last May. As such, Bellew is supposed to be fighting his WBC mandatory challenger next. That’s where the talented Briedis comes in. He’s the WBC mandatory for Bellew.
If Hearn and Bellew wants to fight a voluntary defense next rather than take the dangerous fight against Briedis, then they’ll need to try and work something out between him and the WBC. In other words, Bellew could have the option of giving Brieidis a step aside fee so that he can temporarily swerve the dangerous fighter and pick out another contender to fight like Ovill McKenzie. I don’t think it’s worth it though.
There’s no one popular enough in the cruiserweight division to make it worthwhile for Bellew to give Briedis a step aside fee at the moment. If Bellew takes the Haye fight at cruiserweight, then I think he should be stripped of his WBC title for bypassing his mandatory challenger Briedis and fighting in another weight division. You can’t just put your mandatory challengers on hold while you fight in whatever other division that you want to.
“Now everybody wants a fight with Tony, but I am official mandatory and I need the fight with Tony,” said Briedis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1M0S-L–eE
You can understand why Bellew might not want to take a fight against Briedis next rather than taking a voluntary defense. Briedis is a very, very good fighter with a ton of punching power. I think he’s one of the smartest fighters in the cruiserweight division, and he also has an excellent chin. The mistakes that Makabu made against Bellew last May are ones that you would never see Briedis make. He’s not going to do something stupid like back up against the ropes in the 1st and 3rd rounds like Makabu did, because the guy is too polished to make a rookie mistake like that.
If Bellew takes the Briedis fight next, there’s an excellent chance that it’ll be the first and last defense for him, because he’ll likely be knocked out by the talented Latvian. As such, I think Bellew and Hearn are going to try their hardest to swerve the Briedis fight for as long as humanly possible before taking it. If the WBC lets Bellew sidestep Brieidis all the way until after the Haye fight in 2017, then I don’t see Bellew ever facing Briedis, because I think he’ll get knocked out by Haye.
I don’t think the WBC will let Bellew keep his WBC title if he gets knocked out by Haye at heavyweight, but you never know. Other sanctioning bodies would strip a champion of his title if he were to get knocked out fighting in another division from the one he holds a title in. Perhaps the WBC won’t care? I think they will. It would be bad news if the WBC just let Bellew keep his WBC cruiserweight title if he were to get knocked out by Haye at cruiserweight. I think they’ll strip Bellew of his title and Briedis will wind up fighting another top contender for the belt if the WBC doesn’t just give it to him for him having waited patiently for his mandatory title shot.
I get the feeling that the only way Bellew will fight Briedis is if he’s dragged kicking and screaming into the ring. Even then, I have my doubts the fight would happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHP4JyLZmlk