Bellew: Cleverly will never fight again after I get through with him

By Boxing News - 07/09/2014 - Comments

bellew6By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew (21-2-1, 13 KO’s) hasn’t gotten past his opponent Julio Cesar Dos Santos (26-2 23 KOs) scheduled for this Saturday night, and yet Bellew is already talking about his planned rematch against former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (27-1, 13 KO’s) for later this year.

Bellew is still bothered about being outworked by Cleverly three years ago in losing a 12 round majority decision in 2011. Bellew now feels that he’s going to beat Cleverly so badly in their rematch that Cleverly will choose to retire.

I’m not sure that he will, but it’s a two-way street, because neither of these guys can afford to lose right now if they want to do anything on the world level. I’m sure that their promoter Eddie Hearn can keep them going with domestic scraps, but the real money comes with being a world champion, and it’s unclear whether either of them has the talent to hold down a world title belt at cruiserweight.

“So when we have the rematch I am going to retire him and finish his career. He will never fight again,” Bellew said to the Liverpool Echo. “I despise him.

Bellew and Cleverly are both pretty much on the same level, and really out of their depth in fighting at cruiserweight. They’ll likely do well as long as they’re matched against weaker cruiserweights, but once they step up to the top 10 against legitimate contenders with true rankings and not inflated, I see both of them getting annulated straightaway.

There are some contenders at cruiserweight with Sergey Kovalev type power, and we already saw what Kovalev did to Cleverly last year in destroying him in 4 rounds. We also saw what Adonis Stevenson did to Bellew in halting him in 6 rounds.

Cleverly will be fighting this Saturday night against Alejandro Emilio Valori (15-4, 11 KO’s) on the same card as Bellew at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Cleverly’s opponent is a little weaker than Bellew’s though.

“I think he is genuinely intimidated by me,” Bellew said.

It really doesn’t matter if Cleverly is afraid of Bellew or not. We’re still talking about a guy that beat him three years ago. Even if Bellew does somehow beat Cleverly in the rematch, where is he going to go in the division?

Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn supposedly will be getting the winner of the Bellew-Cleverly fight a title shot, but that doesn’t mean much given how good the cruiserweight champions are compared to those two fighters.



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