By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn openly acknowledged that WBC Silver light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (19-1-1, 12 KO’s) didn’t look good in fighting to a 12 round draw against challenger Isaac Chilemba (20-1-1, 9 KO’s) last month in Liverpool, UK, but Hearn still thinks Bellew should have won.
The Liverpool crowd seems to have a different opinion altogether because you didn’t hear a peep out of them after the referee announced the draw with the scores 116-112 for Chilemba, 114-114 even and 116-115 for Bellew. I agreed with the 116-112 score for Chilemba because I think he totally dominate Bellew for the last 8 rounds of the fight.
Hearn says he’s now looking to put a rematch together because Bellew and Chilemba for May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The fight would be on the undercard of the Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler pay-per-view card, although it won’t be the co-feature.
Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves is pegged for that position against supposedly a big name. I can’t wait to see who that fighter will be. It’s got to hurt that Bellew is being dropped from main event on his own card to the third fight from the top, but what do you expect?
The potential for a buzz-kill from Bellew would be incredibly high, and Hearn can’t have him putting the fans in a downer mood right before the main event between Froch and Kessler. If Hearn was thinking wisely, he might want to put Bellew-Chilemba down even further like at the #4 spot to avoid fans being upset should Bellew get another boxing lesson like the one he got from Chilemba last month.
Hearn had this excuse for why Bellew was so lost against Chilemba, saying to Sky Sports News “Sometimes I think Tony uses too much energy before the first bell goes…we’re still number one with the WBC so nothing’s changed in that respect…reputation-wise we’ve got unfinished business with Chilemba.”
That’s a pretty weak excuse if you ask me. The reason why Bellew got schooled by Chilemba has nothing to do with the amount of energy that Bellew expended before the start of the fight. That’s not the reason why Bellew was so confused. It was an energy thing; it was a skill problem for Bellew. Chilemba was too fast and too good defensively, and when Chilemba took the fight to Bellew starting in the 6th, Bellew backed off and looked timid.
We’re already hearing how Bellew thinks he’s got it figured out what he needs to do in order to beat Chilemba in the rematch. Bellew figures all he needs to do is jump on Chilemba and go all out from the start to outwork him and beat him with pressure. If Bellew tries that trick, he’s going to gas out by the 8th round because he’s not going to be landing his shots and it takes a lot of energy out of you when you miss punches the way that Bellew was in their first fight.
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