Tony Bellew to get title shot in December, possibly against Ramirez

By Boxing News - 09/20/2015 - Comments

bellewBy Scott Gilfoid: #3 WBO, #8 IBF, #10 WBA, #13 WBC Tony Bellew (25-2-1, 16 KOs) appears to be on the verge of fighting for the IBF cruiserweight title in December after the International Boxing Federation has reportedly stripped IBF champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez of his title for failing to defend the title for over a year.

The last time that Hernandez defended his IBF strap was in August of 2014, when he defeated Firat Arslan by a boring 12 round decision. Hernandez rescheduled a fight against Victor Emilio Ramirez for October 2nd, but then recently, Hernandez attempted to reschedule again.

That didn’t work though, as Ramirez is now the WBO interim cruiserweight champion and it looks like he’ll be facing the 32-year-old Bellew next. Bellew let the cat out of the bag in an interview. My guess is Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn wanted Bellew to keep quiet about the news until he could announce it himself, but Bellew opened up his yap in an interview last Friday, and now the news out there.

“It’s a big fight that I’m going to win in December,” Bellew said to IFL TV. “Listen, my career has always been drilled in becoming world champion and I believe that’s going to happen in December, I really, really do.”

I think this actually works against Bellew if he winds up facing Ramirez for the title instead of Hernandez, because Ramirez is more of a brute than Hernandez, and he’s got huge power. I mean, I don’t consider Ramirez in the same class as some of the lower ranked contenders like #4 IBF Rakkim Chakkiev, #9 IBF Dmitry Kudryashov or #3 Murat Gassiev, but that’s just the International Boxing Federation’s Mickey Mouse ranking system.

The IBF actually have the better fighters ranked below the poorer ones in my view. I don’t rate Bellew as being as good as Kudryashov. I think that’s just a silly ranking by the IBF.

“I’ve worked my [expletive] off to get this far, and I haven’t worked my [expletive] off to lose at the final stage,” Bellew said in bragging about his mostly mismatches against poor opposition since moving up to cruiserweight. “I’m at the point where this next fight for me is everything that I’ve ever dreamed of, so we’re going to get there,” Bellew said.

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I don’t know about Bellew having worked his backside off since moving up to the cruiserweight division in 2014. It seems to me that Bellew has had it really easy with his promoter Eddie Hearn putting him mostly in with poor opposition. You can judge for yourself if you think that Bellew has fought quality opponents to work his tail off.

Here are the guys that Bellew has fought since moving up to the cruiserweight division: 2nd tier fighters Arturs Kulikauskis and Ivica Bacurin, as well as Julio Cesar Dos and 38-year-old Valery Brudov. Those are not good fighters in my opinion. I’m sorry, but I don’t see any of them as being the type of fighters that

Bellew shouldn’t be bragging about how he’s worked his backside off to get this far in the cruiserweight division. On the contrary, Bellew hasn’t done anything at all in the cruiserweight division other than facing a handful of fodder opponents. If Bellew had fought good opponents then he likely would have been cycled out of the cruiserweight division and driven either to retirement or back to the light heavyweight division.

I honestly can’t see Bellew beating the likes of Kudryashov, Gassiev, and Chakkiev. The thing is there are better fighters than those guys in the cruiserweight division in my view. But I don’t think Bellew could beat any of those fighters, and I don’t see him beating Ramirez in December. I don’t think Ramirez is comparable to those guys mentioned above, but I do see him more than good enough to beat a limited fighter like Bellew.

I don’t think Bellew is cut out for the cruiserweight division. He doesn’t have the physique to fight in this weight class. He just looks like a tall skinny guy with flab around his midsection. He looks like an out of shape light heavyweight to me rather than a solidly built cruiserweight ready for war. That’s why I see Bellew getting badly exposed the first moment he’s put in with someone good at cruiserweight.

Bellew looked awful in his last fight in beating an over-matched Kulikauskis. I don’t know where Hearn found this guy for Bellew. He looked terrible.



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