Tony Bellew vs. Roberto Bolonti on November 17th on Froch-Mack undercard

By Boxing News - 10/03/2012 - Comments

Image: Tony Bellew vs. Roberto Bolonti on November 17th on Froch-Mack undercardBy Scott Gilfoid: WBC International Silver light heavyweight title holder Tony Bellew (18-1, 12 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his new strap against little known 33-year-old 175 contender Roberto Bolonti (30-1, 19 KO’s) on the undercard on the IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch vs. Yusaf Mack on November 17th at the Capital FM Arena, in Nottingham, UK.

Bellew told IFilm London “I think his [Bolonti] weakness is his defense, and the way to get to him is to pressure him. It’s another step up the ladder.”

Bellew hopes to take a win over Bolonti and then fight WBC light heavyweight eliminator in early 2013 to try and earn a shot against WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson at some point next year. I’m sure that Dawson would have no qualms whatsoever in fighting a one-dimensional fighter like Bellew. This would be cake for Dawson, because Bellew isn’t very fast and he’s pretty easy to figure out in the ring. This isn’t Andre Ward we’re about here, and Dawson wouldn’t be weight drained like he was in the loss o Ward.

As for the 33-year-old Bolonti, I’ve seen several of his fights and was not impressed in the least. Bolonti comes from Argentina and is ranked #7 WBC, #10 WBA, #12 IBF in the light heavyweight division. However, those inflated rankings are based on Bolonti’s wins over pretty purely Argentinian based fighters from the 2nd and 3rd tiers. I only see a one recognizable fighter – 37-year-old Jose Alberto Clavero – on Bolonti’s entire resume, and it took Bolonti 8 rounds to get this guy out. In contrast, guys like Anthony Mundine, Karoly Balzsay and Marco Antonio Periban were able to get Clavero out much earlier.

So what we’re looking at here is a fighter that has a ranking this is probably inflated by 15 to 20 places. I see Bolonti as a top 40 fighter but not higher than that. As such, you can make a strong argument that Bellew is taking a step down from his last fight against Edison Miranda, who Bellew stopped in the 9th round last month on September 8th. I rate Miranda as a much better fighter compared to Bolonti, yet Miranda isn’t even ranked in the top 15 in the light heavyweight division.

Why is Bolonti ranked higher? The reason is because Bolonti fought anyone. He’s built up an impressive looking record against little known fighters, so he’s been able to avoid the losses that Miranda has. But believe me, if you put Bolonti in with Lucian Bute, Kelly Pavlik, Isaac Chilemba, Arthur Abraham and Yordanis Despaigne, guys that Miranda has lost to, Bolonti would likely lose badly to all of them.

Bolonti doesn’t have much size, speed or power. He does throw a fairly left hook and is a decent body puncher, but he is so slow with his punches. He’s like taller version of Marcos Maidana in terms of slow hand speed, but he doesn’t have Maidana’s huge power. Bellew is right about Bolonti being easy to hit. In the fights I’ve seen of him against 3rd tier opposition, Bolonti was hit pretty much every time his opponent threw anything at him.

It’s sad that Bellew will be able to move up the light heavyweight rankings off of a win over the likes of Bolonti. They should have better standards when moving a fighter up by requiring that they beat someone good.



Comments are closed.