By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) is saying he has 3 fights left in his boxing career before he walks away from the sport and retires for good. Bellew just turned 34-years-old last November, and his immediate goal is to win a heavyweight world title in his next fight after his fractured right hand heals. Bellew says he then wants to move back down to cruiserweight so that he can unify the division.
Bellew was stripped of his WBC cruiserweight title by the World Boxing Council, who changed his status to ‘Emeritus champion’ by the sanctioning body. They did this due to Bellew having suffered a fractured right knuckle in his 11th round knockout win over David Haye on March 4 last month. Bellew can still fight for the WBC title without working his way to a title shot like most contenders due to him being given the Emeritus tag by the WBC.
“I’m going to go away for a little break with my family and when I get back I’ll have news,” said Bellew to skysports.com. “Three, because I’ll win the heavyweight championship and I would need two fights to unify the cruiserweight championship, so that’s why,” said Bellew in explaining why he’ll fight 3 more times.
It’s always interesting when fighters try and map out their future ahead of time. Personally, I think it’s crazy for Bellew to map things out like this. Bellew is predicting a rosy future for him in him winning his world title shot, if he gets one, and then unifying the cruiserweight division. I hate to say it but the likely scenario we’re going to see in Bellew’s title shot at heavyweight will be him getting knocked out in 6 rounds or less. If Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn can get him a crack at IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in his next fight, then it won’t matter if he loses the fight. The payday that Bellew will get from that fight will cushion the blow of him losing the fight, I imagine.
Heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker have been mentioned by Hearn as possible options for Bellew’s next fight, but I don’t see either of those fights happening for Bellew. I see Hearn keeping Bellew’s next fight an in house one against Joshua, as Hearn promotes him too. Bellew vs. Joshua is almost a given. That’s my prediction. I give Bellew no chance of making it beyond 3 rounds against Joshua unless he decides to string it out and toy with him for 5 or 6 rounds so that can give the boxing fans a chance to get their money’s worth for purchasing the fight on pay-per-view.
“I’m the proudest WBC champion there has ever been. People have no idea how proud I am of owning that belt,” said Bellew.
The WBC title has been stripped from Bellew, so I’m not sure he’s talking about. Did the WBC let him keep the strap? Nah, there’s no way Bellew will be able to keep the title, because it’s going to be fought for tonight in the Marco Huck vs. Mairis Briedis fight in Dortmund, Germany.
Dereck Chisora takes risky fight against Robert Helenius on 5/27
Dereck Chisora (26-7, 18 KOs) will be taking a risky fight against the big 6’6” heavyweight Robert Helenius (24-1, 15 KOs) on May 27 at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. The two 33-year-old fighters will fight for the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title. Chisora already lost to Helenius in 2011. Chisora still thinks he won that fight, but he’s not a judge. The judges thought Helenius was the better fighter and that’s why they gave him a 12 round decision. Fighting Helenius a second time won’t change Chisora’s previous loss to him. He’s going to have to live with that defeat. Helenius did a good job of landing his straight punches down the middle as Chisora was coming forward all night long. I think the judges did a fine job scoring that fight.
“I don’t think Robert took me seriously last time,” said Chisora to skysports.com. “But this time he will need to train harder than ever. I’m going to take him to places he has never been before, and I’m going to stop him. I’m not playing around. This guy is in trouble. When I come back to Helsinki, I’m going to be in war mode.”
Chisora’s loss to Helenius in 2011 didn’t hurt his career the way a defeat normally does. Instead of going to the back of the line in the heavyweight division to earn a title shot, Chisora was selected by WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko for a fight in February 2012. Chisora lost that fight by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. Vitali fought with just his right hand from the 3rd round on due to him injuring his left shoulder. Chisora still lost. The odds of Chisora getting another world title shot off the back of another defeat to Helenius would seem to be very, very low. Chisora needs to make sure he beats Helenius this time, because I don’t see one of the champions in the heavyweight division throwing him a bone and letting him fight for a title.
Chisora’s stamina is not up to the mark for him to be fighting in a war against Helenius. I mean, we did see Chisora gas out in his recent losses to Dillian Whyte and Kubrat Pulev. Those were both fights that Chisora lost by a 12 round split decision. Chisora could have won both of them if he hadn’t faded down the home stretch from the fast pace he had set in the fights. Chisora needs to learn how to pace himself in his fights, because doesn’t possess the stamina to fight hard for 12 rounds. Further, Chisora isn’t a good enough puncher for him to score early knockouts to his fights going into the later rounds. Yeah, Chisora is good at knocking out 2nd and 3rd tier fodder opposition, but he can’t seem to do that against the better fighters he faces. Each Chisora steps it up, he loses. We’ve seen that over and over again his defeats to Whyte, Pulev, Vitali Klitschko, Helenius and David Haye.
Chisora needs to focus more on fighting the better heavyweights for the remainder of his career. Following Chisora’s defeat to Tyson Fury in their rematch in November 2014, Chisora burned through a year and a half of his career fighting lesser opposition in 4 fights. Tune-up fights are fine when you’re younger and need those types of fights, but when you’re close to your mid-30s like Chisora, you can’t afford to throw away 2 years of your career fighting lesser opposition. Chisora already fought the mediocre heavyweights earlier in his career. He should be trying to face the top contenders at this point in his career instead of guys like Jakov Gospic (16-13), Peter Erdos (9-8) and Andras Csomor (14-8-1).