By Scott Gilfoid: Former world title challenger Tony Bellew (24-2-1, 15 KOs) could wind up being put on the undercard of the September 6th fight card headlined by WBA World bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell (26-2-1, 12 KOs) vs. Tomoki Kameda (31-1, 19 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Bellew, who is ranked #3 WBO, #9 IBF, #10 WBA, #10 WBC in the cruiserweight division, will be fighting an 8-10 round fight against an opponent still to determined, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport.
Hearn wants Bellew to get some exposure in the United States while he waits for the dust to clear from the fight between IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Victor Ramirez. Hearn wants to match Bellew against the winner of the Hernandez-Ramirez fight.
“We’re waiting on Hernandez vs. Ramirez,” Hearn said to IFL TV. “I’m probably going to stick him on the Jaime McDonnell card in an 8 to 10 round bout. Let’s put him in Texas and let him get some U.S exposure.”
Bellew stopped Ivica Bacurin in the 10th round in his last fight in June at cruiserweight. In Bellew’s other recent fights, he defeated Nathan Cleverly by a 12 round split decision last year in November, Julio Cesar Dos Santos and Valery Brudov.
Bellew has had exactly four fights at cruiserweight since he was whipped by WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson by a 6th round knockout in November of 2013, and none of those fights has Bellew proven that he belongs at cruiserweight. To be honest, Bellew doesn’t look like he’s got the size or talent to be fighting in the division.
If you put Bellew in with some of the top cruiserweights like Glowacki, Alexasandr Usyk, and others, I think Bellew would be dominated and knocked out. But the fact that he’s faced largely weak opposition, hes been able to win his four fights in the division without suffering a defeat.
I see Bellew’s cruiserweight experiment ending in failure with him getting beaten repeatedly once he stops facing fodder and starts facing the better cruiserweights in the division. I’d hate to see Bellew throw away two to three years of his career fighting in a division that he’s not cut out to be fighting in.
Bellew would be better off trimming off that lard that he’s put since moving up to cruiserweight last year and look to resume fighting in the 175lb division where he at least has a slight chance of winning a world title if he goes after WBA “regular” light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer.
If Bellew burns off the flab that he’s put on since he moved up to cruiserweight, he might have a chance of competing against Braehmer. There’s no way obviously that Bellew could beat the likes of Adonis Stevenson or Sergey Kovalev, because those guys are just too talented for him. But if he targets Braehmer, he might be able to beat him to take over as the WBA paper champion. Who knows? Bellew might be able to hold onto the WBA title for a couple of years until the World Boxing Association makes unbeaten Artur Beterbiev the WBA mandatory. Once that happens, I see Bellew getting obliterated by Beterbiev because the guy is just too talented for the likes of Bellew in my mind.
Perhaps the best fight on the McDonnell-Kameda card by far is the super middleweight contender between former WBC 168lb champion Anthony Dirrell and former world title challenger Marco Antonio Rubio. This is going to be an exciting fight from start to finish and I expect to be a great fight. This fight will likely wind up as the best fight on the card and steal the thunder from the main event.
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