By Scott Gilfoid: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (23-1, 20 KO’s) wasted no time in calling out IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch for his next fight after making easy work of a painfully over-matched and incredibly slow Tony Bellew (20-2-1, 12 KO’s) in a 6th round knockout on Saturday night at the Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Moments after knocking Bellew out, Stevenson said “I want Carl Froch and Bernard Hopkins.”
Froch had an opportunity to fight Stevenson earlier this year, but he decided to fight Mikkel Kessler again rather than take what would have been a very dangerous fight against Stevenson.
Stevenson treated poor Bellew like a punching bag in tagging him at will with shots in every round. Stevenson had to follow Bellew around because he kept moving in circles the entire 6 rounds. But Stevenson wasn’t bothered by this tactic, and still hit Bellew again and again with massive left hands to the head. Bellew showed a good chin until the 6th round when he was hurt with a left hand that shook him to his boots.
The shot toppled Bellew over on the canvas in a heap. He should have stayed down for the count of 5 of 6 before getting up, but Bellew quickly got back up. And when the action resumed, Bellew didn’t even try to clinch. He was trying to actually fight, and it was it a terrible plan because Stevenson hit him with a left to the head that caused Bellew to go weak in the knees. Another two left hands from Stevenson crashed home to the head of a now defenseless Bellew, and that point the referee decided to stop the fight.
As for Froch, I honestly don’t see him accepting Stevenson’s challenge. Froch would be like Bellew part 2 if he accepted a fight with Stevenson, and I think Froch is smarted enough to know what would happen to him if he agreed to take this fight. His chin would finally betray him and he’d be knocked out in front of the entire world. That obviously wouldn’t be good for his legacy, so I don’t think he’ll say yes to the Stevenson fight. I mean, I think Froch – or his promoter Eddie Hearn – will come up with a great excuse for why they can’t fight Stevenson, but I see it being pretty obvious that he doesn’t want any part of the talented Stevenson. He’s fast, too power, and too talented for someone like Froch.
I felt sorry for Bellew with the way he got beaten tonight. He just looked so over-matched in this fight, and it turned out to be a really sad fight with Bellew taking punch after punch to the head without him having the speed to answer back. Bellew would throw punches back, but he’d miss more often than not.
The third was especially brutal with Stevenson hitting Bellew with single shots over and over again. It looked like Stevenson got upset after Bellew bloodied his nose with a right hand to the head. Stevenson then went off and hit Bellew with big left hands repeatedly until the round ended. I was surprised that Bellew was able to take all of those shots because he was hit a lot in that round.
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