Haye: Flores will beat Bellew

By Boxing News - 10/14/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight David Haye expects BJ Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs) to pull off a big upset this Saturday night by unseating new WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) in their fight at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. It won’t be an upset in Haye’s mind, as he sees Flores as simply the better fighter of the two.

Haye is well aware of the kind of talent the 37-year-old Flores has going for him, as he’s a good friend of his. Haye sees Flores’s thicker build as being key for him being the tall and thin Bellew in this fight. However, if Bellew does win, he would like to discuss putting a fight against him in the near future.

The World Boxing Council will likely allow Bellew to steer around his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis rather than insisting that he face him or else be stripped of the strap.

It’s hard to see Bellew as a favorite against any of the top contenders in the division, because he’s flawed and quite vulnerable. Flores is ranked #14 by the WBC, but he still has to be seen as having a very good chance of winning the fight because of Bellew being a mediocre fighter.

Bellew had two controversial fights against Isaac Chilemba in the past that he appeared to lose. He was given a win and a draw. I had Bellew losing both by 9 rounds to 3 and 8 rounds to 4. Both fights took place in the UK.

Haye said this to skysports.com:

“I don’t think Tony is going to win the fight. B.J. is a big cruiserweight. Look at them next to each other, there’s not a lot in it at first sight but Tony is tall and skinny whereas B.J. is wide and thick set and can punch. B.J. is very underrated, he hasn’t perhaps performed to the best of his ability in his big fights but he’s been boxing since his was six, has great amateur pedigree boxing all over the world and I think Tony has underestimated him.”

I totally agree with Mr. Haye. Flores WILL beat Bellew on Saturday night, and there’s not much Bellew is going to be able to do about it. I expect Flores to take the judges out of the equation by scoring a knockout so there’s not another controversial decision like we saw in Bellew’s two fights against Isaac Chilemba.

The main reason why Flores is being sold short in this fight is because of his loss to Beibut Shumenov last year in July 2015. Flores was pretty out-boxed by the 33-year-old Shumenov, who did a great job of using in and out attacks to get the better of him. Shumenov has reinvented himself since his loss to Bernard Hopkins in 2014. If you look at the way Shumenov fought Hopkins and compare him to how he fought the 37-year-old Flores, it’s like night and day. You’re looking at two different fighters.

It’s not surprising then that Flores lost the fight so badly. Anyone would unless their names were Oleksandr Usyk or Murat Gassiev. I think Bellew would be totally schooled by Shumenov in a one-sided fight, even in the UK.

The good news for Flores is he’s facing a guy that will be there to be hit by him in Bellew on Saturday night. Flores won’t have to go chasing Bellew down like he did against Shumenov, because Bellew will be right there. Bellew fancies himself as a slugger in the cruiserweight division. That style hasn’t been pounded out of Bellew just yet. I imagine it will be soon, perhaps on Saturday.

Bellew is going to get drilled like he did in his fight against Adonis Stevenson in 2013 if he keeps trying to slug. Bellew hasn’t faced anyone good yet in the cruiserweight division. Bellew had wins over Ilunga Makabu, Mateusz Masternak and Nathan Cleverly, but those aren’t good cruiserweights in my view. Those are or were fringe level fighters in my opinion.

I’m not in charge of the rankings unfortunately, but if I was, I would have had Masternak, Cleverly and Makabu at dead bottom at #15. The talented cruiserweights are from this bunch: Usyk, Marco Huck, Gassiev, Shumenov, Denis Lebedev, Krzystof Glowacki, Krzystif Wlodarcyzk, and Mairis Briedis.

I couldn’t help but notice that Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn has never matched him against any of those guys. Is just a coincidence or has Hearn been purposefully been steering Bellew around all those guys. When you look at the guys that Bellew HAS faced at cruiserweight and then look at the talents that he hasn’t faced, it seems to me like he’s being carefully matched by Hearn.

Here are the fighters that Bellew has faced since moving up to cruiserweight in 2014:

Ilunga Makabu

Mateusz Masternak

Arturs Kulikauskis

Ivica Bacurin

Nathan Cleverly

Julio Cesar Dos Santos

Valery Brudov

Let’s be serious here; Bellew HAS NOT been fighting the talented contender/champions at cruiserweight, has he? Why hasn’t Bellew fought the following fighters?

Oleksandry Usyk

Marco Huck

Murat Gassiev

Beibut Shumenov

Denis Lebedev

Krzystof Glowacki

Krzystif Wlodarcyzk

Mairis Briedis

Dmitry Kudryashov

Olanewaja Durodola

Thabiso Mchunu

Grigory Drowzd

This is just a short list of the talented cruiserweights that Bellew has not been matched up against. I don’t know why Bellew hasn’t been matched against those guys, because they’re the cream of the crop at cruiserweight. The fighters that Bellew has fought have been cruiserweight fringe contenders in terms of talent in my view. If I was promoting Bellew and I wanted to keep him from getting whipped, I would have probably matched him against the same bunch as Hearn, because I don’t think he could beat the talented fighters in the division.

“If Tony somehow manages to beat B.J – which he won’t do – we can talk. Tony makes plenty of noise so we’ll see, but he’s got his hands full with B.J,” said Haye. “Tony thinks it’s an easy touch and B.J. is a huge underdog with the bookies, I think he’s worth backing to cause the upset.”