By Scott Gilfoid: British light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (16-1, 10 KO’s) is expected to successfully defend his title on April 27th against former EBU light heavyweight champion Danny McIntosh (13-2, 7 KO’s) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. One of the things that has boxing fans thinking that Bellew will win this fight is because of how McIntosh did against a common opponent WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly.

While McIntosh was blown out by Cleverly by a 7th round TKO in July 2009, Bellew was able to fight Cleverly well enough to deserve at least a 12 round draw in their fight last October. Bellew lost that fight by a 12 round majority decision and more than a few boxing fans thought this was messed up situation. It’s not news to me to see Bellew come up short against Cleverly, because he was facing a popular champion and you got to really put it on Cleverly if you want to get the win.

I still give McIntosh a great chance at beating Bellew in this fight. It doesn’t matter that Bellew did better against a common opponent; what’s important is that Bellew is very vulnerable if you take the fight to him early and connect with big power shots. Bellew looks almost scared when he has an opponent that’s looking to take his head off. I saw that in his fights with Ovil Mckenzie in 2010 and 2011.

After talking a good game before the two fighters got in the ring, Bellew looked frightened of being hit after he tasted the canvas twice in their first fight. Bellew came back to win the first fight, but he stayed timid in their second fight, staying on the outside and boxing his way to a 12 round decision. I couldn’t recognize Bellew, because he changed his fighting style so dramatically for that fight by playing it safe.

So what McIntosh has to do to beat Bellew is to really take the fight to him and let him taste the power early. Bellew will do the rest by getting on his bike and running the remainder of the fight. Bellew’s eyes will widen once he tastes some of McIntosh’s power. I don’t know what it is with Bellew. You’d this that being a slugger he’d be okay with taking punishment himself. But he’s one of those kinds of guys that would rather not get hit, and that makes him a much less effective puncher. Like I said, all McIntosh has to do to win this fight is to land with hard shots early and put a lot of pressure on Bellew. This will send Bellew off to the races.