By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew is looking to take advantage of his important win over an injured heavyweight David Haye last Saturday night by getting a big fight. Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is a fight that the 34-year-old Bellew would be interested in accepting. Peter Fury said this week that he’d be interested in a fight between Tyson Fury and Bellew. The one problem that would hold back the fight from happening is Fury not having a boxing license.
It still remains to be seen how long it will take before the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) gives the 29-year-old Fury back his license to fight. He’s been out of the ring for 2 years as of now. That’s a very long time. If Bellew is interested in waiting potentially a long time, then maybe he can get the Fury fight. It’s just that Bellew is probably going to need to consider staying active if he doesn’t want to be forgotten by the fans.
Bellew is not a solid heavyweight in my view. He’s probably going to lose to the first good heavyweight he faces. As such, Bellew needs to make his next fight count by him getting the biggest money fight available.
“Why wouldn’t I, is the question? Why wouldn’t I? Yes I would,” said Bellew to skysports.com about him being open to fighting Tyson Fury. “If everything goes well and he passes everything he needs to pass then it’s a fight that can potentially happen, yes it is.”
The chances are that even if Fury does receive his license back in the next 2-3 months, he’s going to need to take tune-up fights for the remainder of 2017 to sharpen up. It’s doubtful that Fury will want to face Bellew and chase him around the ring all night. Bellew was running from Haye quite a bit until Haye suffered a leg injury in round 6. Fury needs to lose some weight so that if he faces a runner like Bellew, he can chase him down and land his shots. It’s pretty clear that Bellew will use the same in and out fighting style against Fury that he used against Haye. Fury can’t be weighing in the 300s if he faces a mobile fighter like Bellew.
I’d say the chances of Fury and Bellew facing each other in 2017 is pretty slim to none. Bellew can’t sit and wait for the rest of 2017 for Fury to get his boxing license. Bellew has to take his advantage of his win over the injured Haye to get the biggest fight out there. If he just stays on the sidelines waiting for Fury to someday be able to fight him, the boxing public will forget about his great achievement of beating the injured Haye.
What’s disappointing about Bellew’s win over Haye is the reality that it probably wouldn’t have happened if the injury hadn’t occurred to the Hayemaker’s right Achilles. Bellew was losing the fight up until the 6th round. It was only after Haye suffered the injury that he took over the fight. As such, Bellew didn’t really prove that he was a better fighter than Haye. He just proved that he could beat an injured Haye.
In the olden days, fighters would want to prove that they could beat a healthy opponent after a win like this. They would turn around and likely give their injured foe a rematch so that they could show the boxing public that they were truly better than him. In the case of Bellew, he talks as if he beat a healthy Haye, and he doesn’t seem to be interested in fighting him a second time. That’s weird part. Bellew is satisfied with how he won the fight. What does that say about Bellew?
Peter Fury senior said to Sky Sports News HQ that a match between Tyson Fury and Bellew would be an “exciting prospect”.
It’s unclear whether Peter Fury was just name dropping Bellew’s name to get Tyson Fury some attention in the boxing public. If Peter isn’t serious about a fight between Tyson and Bellew, then there’s nothing to get excited about. Never the less, it’s very doubtful that Bellew and Fury will be fighting anytime soon. Bellew cannot sit around for ages waiting for Tyson to get his license to fight back. Bellew has to strike while the iron is hot and get the biggest money fight available to him in 2017. If that means Anthony Joshua, then so be it.
I think it’s more likely that Bellew will face either Deontay Wilder or James Parker next unless he wants to sit and wait for a long time before Joshua or Fury gets free. It would be a gamble. By waiting for one of the big names to finally be free to fight him, Bellew might be forgotten by the fans, because he might have to sit for the remainder of the year.
Fighting a stay busy fight at heavyweight would be risky for Bellew, because even a domestic level fighter like David Allen would have a very good chance of beating him in my view. As long as Bellew’s opponent is injury free, he’ll be at risk against almost anyone with a shred of talent.
Personally, I’m not interested in seeing Fury and Bellew face each other. I’d rather see Fury fight a real heavyweight with some size and talent. I think Bellew is just some guy that won a big fight because his opponent was injured badly rather than him actually beating him. If Bellew had beaten a healthy Haye, then I could understand getting excited about his win. But that’s not what we saw last Saturday night. We saw Bellew struggle against a healthy Haye for the first 5 rounds, and then take over after he got injured in round 6. The only thing you can say about Bellew is that he showed that he can beat a one-legged Haye.