Hearn: Bellew will be winning a world title in 2013

By Boxing News - 09/10/2012 - Comments

Image: Hearn: Bellew will be winning a world title in 2013By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is talking about getting a world title shot for his fighter Tony Bellew (18-1, 12 KO’s) in 2013 after Bellew was able to defeat journeyman Edison Miranda (35-8, 30 KO’s) by a 9th round TKO last Saturday night in a less than impressive showing at the Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, London, United Kingdom.

Hearn said this after Bellew’s win over Miranda last Saturday night: “Edison Miranda is the kind of guy that can finish your career with one punch. Tony had to be smart, took his time. It was a great performance. We’re going to sit down now. I’d like Tony to come out on the undercard, the chief support of Froch bill on November 17th…This guy is a great character and has a great future. He still has had only 18, 19 fights now. So, he’s learning and learning. He’s going to be a massive star. We’re going to make him huge. He’s going to go on and win a world title next year.”

Next year? Is Hearn kidding? Bellew won’t even get a title shot next year, so how pray tell will he be winning a world title fight? Oh man, I hope Bellew wasn’t listening to hard when Hearn was flapping his gums because he’s going to get his hopes up and then likely be in the dumps when it doesn’t happen.

Bellew didn’t look any better than Miranda up until the 9th round when Miranda completely ran out of gas and was taken out by a body shot after he stopped punching completely and just perched himself with his back against the ropes like a sparring partner. But Bellew looked terrible in rounds one through eight, throwing pretty much mostly jabs and looking timid any time Miranda would even hint like he was going to throw a power shot.

I think Hearn is going to have major, major problems trying to get a title shot for Bellew in 2013 with him not even ranked in the top 15 at light heavyweight. But even if Bellew does ranked at 175, it’s going to be a bottom 14 or 15 ranking, and who’s going to want to fight a guy ranked that low? There’s no upside to it unless WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly suddenly takes an interest in wanting to fight Bellew again. Fat chance that happens. Hearn might as well be dreaming about Santa Clause coming to visit Bellew with a big bag toys, because Cleverly isn’t going to fight Bellew again, at least voluntarily.

The only way Bellew gets that rematch is if he becomes the mandatory challenger for that strap, and that might takes years to accomplish with the kind of opposition Bellew has been facing lately.

Beating the likes of Danny Macintosh and Edison Miranda isn’t going to give Bellew much of any lift in the rankings. As such, he’s not going to get a title shot. If I was Hearn I wouldn’t have anything about title shots for Bellew. I’d have been talking about having him continue to defend his British strap against the domestic level opposition.

If I was Bellew’s promoter it would be about showing him some tough love. I’d have him fighting only top contenders and nothing else. If he couldn’t handle it then so be it. I’d then cut my losses and let Bellew go as fast I could. But I wouldn’t string him along against the Macintosh and Miranda types while talking title shots when he isn’t even ranked in the top 15.



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