Bellew likely to face Cleverly next after poor performance against McKenzie

By Boxing News - 07/17/2011 - Comments

By William Mackay: Unbeaten Commonwealth light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (16-0, 10 KO’s) will reportedly be the next opponent for World Boxing Organization (WBO) light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (22-0, 11 KO’s) later on this year.

However, Bellew, ranked #14 by the WBO, is perhaps the last guy that Cleverly needs to be facing after the boring 12 round unanimous decision win that Bellew got over 31-year-old challenger Ovill McKenzie (18-11, 7 KO’s) last Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Bellew, 28, treated the journeyman McKenzie like he was a live hand-grenade instead of fighter with a ton of defeats.

Bellew, who can punch a little, boxed the entire fight behind his jab and threw very few power punches. McKenzie missed much of the time with his shots and would occasionally throw a bomb that would connect but with little affect. Bellew was playing it safe from the start to ensure that he wasn’t going to get knocked down like he was in his last fight against McKenzie last year in December. Bellew was knocked down twice in that fight and came back to stop McKenzie in the 8th.

It was thought that the two fighters would have equally exciting rematch this time. However, Bellew had other ideas in mind and played it safe the entire fight and ended up stinking up the joint because he didn’t want to engage. Bellew did get the win, but it was such a poor performance from him that I can’t think of a worse opponent to take on the WBO champion Cleverly than Bellew.

Surely, there’s got to be at last 14 better options than this guy in the top 15, don’t you think? Cleverly needs to step it up and take on someone like Chad Dawson or Zsolt Erdei, both of which are ranked above Bellew. Of course, those guys would likely beat Cleverly but at least he would be a good fight. Cleverly already had an easy opponent in his last against Aleksy Kuziemski. It’s time to step it up and face some good fighters now.



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