Bellew: Haye sees me as big risk

By Boxing News - 11/09/2016 - Comments

bellew96

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) is back at it with his talk of wanting to fight heavyweight contender David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) in early 2017. Bellew, 33, says Haye should take the fight against him if he wants to get the big payday that he’s looking for. Bellew feels that none of the top heavyweights in the division want to fight Haye except for him.

Bellew wants the fight because he feels he can beat him. May boxing fans think the only reason Bellew is looking for the Haye fight is for a cash out, because once he fights his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis at cruiserweight, he’ll likely lose to him. So instead of fighting his mandatory challenger, Bellew continues to look in another direction.

In this case, Bellew is trying to fight a heavyweight in Haye. The World Boxing Council appears to be willing to let Bellew freeze his cruiserweight title while he moves up in weight to fight Haye. You can argue that it’s not fair to the other cruiserweight contenders for the WBC to do this.

Bellew feels he’s a big risk for Haye, but he’s not beaten anyone that you can call a good fighter at cruiserweight that would suggest that he’s any kind of risk for him. Bellew’s level was shown three years ago when he was blasted to smithereens by Adonis Stevenson in 2013. Since then, Bellew has beaten these cruiserweights: BJ Flores, Ilunga Makabu, Mateusz Masternak, Arturs Kulikauskis, Ivica Bacurin, Nathan Cleverly, Julio Cesar Dos Santos and Valery Brudov.

The basic problem with those guys is that they’re not considered the cream of the cruiserweight crop. Some of them are journeyman. The better fighters of that bunch are limited fringe contender level guys. Masternak, Makabu and Cleverly were fighters of limited talent at cruiserweight.

Bellew hasn’t faced the best cruiserweights as of yet. I’m talking about Murat Gassiev, Oleksandr Usyk, Denis Lebedev, Mairis Briedis, Marco Huck, Beibut Shumenov, Krzystof Glowacki, Yunier Dorticos, Grigory Drozd, Krzystof Wlodarczyk and Dmitry Kudrashov. Could Bellew beat some of those fighters? I think he could one or two of them. Could Bellew beat ALL of those fighters? Not a chance. I think that are at least five or six of those guys that would destroy Bellew with ease. Usyk would likely beat Bellew in a one-sided fashion. Shumenov would likely clown Bellew for 12 rounds.

Drozd, Glowacki, Huck, Lebedev, Breidis and Dorticos would likely KO Bellew. My point is that Bellew has not even faced the best cruiserweights yet, and here he is now looking to freeze his WBC title to move up to heavyweight to fight Haye. I think it’s not fair to the cruiserweight contenders in the WBC’s top 15 rankings, and it makes a circus out of the sport. If Bellew wants to fight at heavyweight, then he should vacate his WBC title and move up in weight. While he’s at it, Bellew should try and fight some of the other heavyweights like Luis Ortiz. I wish him a lot of luck.

“If he [Haye] wants to get himself out there, I am the hottest fighter in the world and that means he will also get the payday he is looking for,” said Bellew to skysports.com about Haye. “I think Haye sees me as a decent reward but a big risk. He knows deep down I am not an easy touch. He can say all he wants but he knows when we get in the trenches I am not an easy touch for anyone.”

I see Bellew as embarrassingly easy touch for Haye. I just hope that after Haye knocks Bellew out in their fight on Sky Box Office PPV, the British boxing fans don’t get angry and feel like they were ripped off with the circus like fight. I think a mismatch like this could hurt future pay-per-view sales in the UK going forward. Sky Box Office should insist on Bellew proving himself as a heavyweight before they agree to televise a mismatch like that on PPV, because it could give the sport a black-eye if Haye obliterates Bellew in one round.

Personally, I don’t care much whether the fight happens or not, because I won’t be ordering it, so it’s no big deal for me. But I think it might be a big deal for the fans that wind up paying to see the Haye-Bellew mismatch, because they’ll be paying to see what will likely be a horrible mismatch. For a fight like that, I think it should be on regular Sky due to Bellew being totally inexperienced at heavyweight.

If Bellew had already fought and beaten some of the quality heavyweights in the division, then I think it wouldn’t be bad for Sky Box Office to stick their necks out by televising the Haye-Bellew mismatch. But with Bellew having fought only fringe level cruiserweights no heavyweights, I see his fight against Haye being a dreadful mismatch with Bellew getting poleaxed in the 1st round.

Haye would then likely gloat about the win, as if he accomplished something. If Haye wants to fight a cruiserweight, then why doesn’t he fight Usyk? I would like to see a fight between Haye and Usyk, because I think it would be a good fight. But a fight between Bellew and Haye is likely going to be another Bellew vs. Adonis Stevenson type of mismatch with Bellew getting tossed around the ring like a bird.

“I am the WBC cruiserweight champion of the world, I am knocking out everyone I touch and I really do believe I will knock him out, too,” said Bellew about Haye.

Why doesn’t Bellew make a list of heavyweights that he thinks he can beat so that fans can know what he really feels? I’d like to see Bellew fight some of the contenders at heavyweight for kicks, but not on Sky Box Office pay-per-view. That just seems crazy to me.

If Bellew wants to fight heavyweights, then he should give up his WBC cruiserweight title and then look to put together fights with various heavyweights. I don’t see Bellew lasting at heavyweight long though. The thing is once Bellew drops his WBC title, it’ll get snatched up by the talented Breidis, and I don’t see Bellew ever getting the belt back.

Unless one of the sanctioning bodies offers Bellew a chance to fight for one of their interim straps, I think he would be stuck as a contender for the remainder of his career. Bellew lucked out when the WBC gave cruiserweight champion Grigory Drozd a Emeritus status due to him being injured. If Bellew had to fight Drozd for the WBC belt, I think he would have been knocked out. Drozd is a real cruiserweight, and he’s highly talented.