By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew wants to go out and punish challenger BJ Flores this Saturday night in their fight at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) says he won’t be thinking about his World Boxing Council title on Saturday night when he gets inside the ring against Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs).
He’ll only thinking about fighting for his life. Bellew believes that he’ll fight harder than Flores will, because he’s willing to taste the canvas and get back up to continue fighting. He doesn’t think that Flores is willing to fight at that level. He sees him tasting the canvas and staying down rather than getting up to continue fighting.
Bellew has been listening to Flores talk all this time, and now he wants to get him inside the ring and show him how good he is. Bellew believes that his power is going to put Flores in shock when he first gets in the first round. He then plans on unloading on him until he scores a knockout st some point.
Bellew said this to IFL TV about the Flores fight.
“Is he willing to go as far as I go? He’s not. I know he’s not because he looks for a way out. He’s going to look for a way out on Saturday night and I’m going to show him the way out. He’s going to hit the floor. I’m fighting for my life on Saturday. It’s beyond the belts when I’m fighting. My belts are not on my mind. He can’t beat me is what’s on my mind, and I won’t give up.”
I think Bellew is really overlooking the talent and the experience that Flores has going for him. Flores has a ton of experience. He’s not some guy that just walked into the gym for the first time. Flores has been winning for a long time.
Granted, Flores lost recently to Beibut Shumenov, but that was against a very good fighter who would likely out-box Bellew with ease and make a monkey out of him in the ring. There’s no shame in Flores losing to Shumenov, because the guy has got a tricky fighting style, and a lot of boxing skills that would give anyone problems.
Hearn said this about the Bellew-Flores fight:
“I think he’s going to come out and I think it’s going to be a fire fight,” Hearn said about Flores. “I think they’re going to have a tradeoff and someone is going to sleep.”
In speaking about a potential fight between Bellew and David Haye in 2017, Hearn said, “I spoke to his [Haye] lawyer and I said, ‘I would like to Bellew against Haye in February or March next year.’ It’s a huge fight, millions of pounds.”
Oh my, it looks like Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn is already planning his next fight in early 2017 in talking about wanting to match him against heavyweight David Haye. It sounds nice, but what about Bellew’s mandatory challenger Mairis Brieidis? Bellew was supposed to be fighting Breidis this time.
Apparently, Bellew was given permission by the World Boxing Council to sidestep his mandatory Briedis in order to fight the 37-year-old Flores. But if Bellew is able to sidestep Briedis a second time in order to fight Haye, I think that would be very sad, because the guy is waiting for his title shot and he should have already gotten the fight.
Bellew said:
“He says he respects me, but I know he doesn’t. His playboy mates think I am an easy touch, but when he gets in the ring and I hit him with ten ounce gloves on, he’s going to feel it. He’s going to look across the ring at me and think; he looks a bit chunky, a bit flabby, but trust me, when I hit him for the first time he’ll think: what was that? The same thing Makabu thought. It’s a tall skinny fat lad from Liverpool with dynamite in both hands and you are going to feel it on Saturday night.”
Bellew is making a mistake in comparing Flores to Ilunga Makabu, because he’s a completely different fighter. Flores is a better fighter than Makabu. He’s not as powerful as Makabu, but he’s clearly a better boxer with superior boxing skills. If Bellew goes into the fight this Saturday night thinking he’s going to be facing a copy of Makabu, he’s going to be in for a rude awakening when he gets inside the ring and finds out the hard way that he’s facing a smarter fighter.
I hope for Bellew’s sake that he uses his brains in this fight rather than trying to tough it out in a macho way. This fight is going to be won on skills, not on who the more macho fighter of the two is. Flores will be coming from a different place. He’s going to be trying to box Belle’s head off inside the ring rather than slugging with him.
