By Scott Gilfoid: Liverpool’s Tony Bellew (20-2-1, 12 KO’s) is talking about moving up to the cruiserweight division following his humiliating 6th round knockout loss last night against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (23-1, 20 KO’s) at the Colisee de Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Despite weeks of boastful trash talking from Bellew in saying how he was going to KO Stevenson and take his WBC title back to Liverpool to parade it around, Bellew ended up being just a punching bag for Stevenson to pound for 6 rounds until knocking Bellew out. The referee Michael Griffin had to step in and halt the bout at 1:50 of the 6th round as Bellew was getting worked over in the corner by Stevenson following a knockdown.
Bellew said after the fight “It wasn’t supposed to be. Maybe it’s time for me to jump up in weight now. Someone [Nathan Cleverly] has recently jumped up in weight and it might be time for me to do it. Might it have been one too many [battles at light heavyweight] for me? I was feeling them tonight and it’s not like me to feel shots. Tonight I did.”
Well, I guess you’re going to feel shots when you stop fighting fodder and starting fighting quality for the first time. I think that might have a lot to do with Bellew feeling the shots tonight rather than in the past. I mean, if you’re fighting guys with no power like Nathan Cleverly, Roberto Bolonti and Isaac Chilemba, then of course you’re going to feel the shots when you fight a talent like Adonis Stevenson. But then again why did Bellew waste so much time fighting those guys instead of fighters with power like Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev? That’s a question you’ve got to ask Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn. Why the soft match-making?
It’s sad to see Bellew quitting on the light heavyweight division after just his second loss at this weight. To quit – what’s up with that? I hate to say it but Bellew isn’t going to do well at cruiserweight. As hard as Stevenson hits, he’s not as big a puncher as the top cruiserweights like Marco Huck, Denis Lebedev, Rakhim Chakhkiev, and Krzystof Wlodarczyk. Those guys punch harder with more weight behind their shots than Stevenson. If you look at Stevenson, he’s still more of a super middleweight than a light heavyweight. He’s not someone that rehydrates to the 190s like some light heavyweights. He’s a 168 pounder with good power and he destroyed Bellew.
Bellew’s problem last night was he fought a stupid fight plan. You don’t run from a fighter like Stevenson because that just prolongs the fight and gives him the opportunity to land his single shot power punches for more rounds. When you prolong a fight against a puncher like Stevenson, it only increases the chances that he’ll get you sooner or later. Bellew may have enjoyed teasing Stevenson about being knocked out by journeyman Darnell Boone in the past, but Boone knew more than Bellew how to beat Stevenson. I give him that. Boone realized the only way to beat Stevenson is to just go after him and go all out in the first 2 rounds and hope to catch him with one big shot in between one of his own. Bellew did that in the 4th round briefly and found success. But he didn’t do it from the start of the fight and he didn’t continue to do it after the 4th. Had Bellew thrown everything he had from the start of the fight, then he might have had a chance to KO Stevenson with a chopping right hand. But Bellew wasn’t smart with his game plan, fought a stupid, stupid fight, and he deserved to lose for not being smart.
I predict that Bellew’s idea of fighting in the cruiserweight division will end in failure, and he’ll end up back in the light heavyweight division after wasting a year or so at cruiserweight.
If Bellew had his head on straight, he’d go after the WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov or the IBF champ Bernard Hopkins. Those guys are beatable at 175. I see Shumenov as a paper champion that won’t last when he finally takes on a quality opponent. However, with him taking optional title defenses and seemingly playing it safe, it could take Bellew a couple of years before he gets a crack at Shumenov unless his promoter Eddie Hearn throws a lot of money at him to lure him into a fight.
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