By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew (25-2-1, 16 KOs) needs a win this Saturday night over Mateusz Masternak (36-3, 26 KOs) to keep marching forward towards an eventual world title shot against one of the cruiserweight champions. Bellew and Masternak will be battling at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
The fight is on the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte card and will be televised on Sky Box Office. Bellew and the 28-year-old Masternak will be fighting for the vacant EBU cruiserweight title. Having the EBU title on the line somehow validates the fight in a way.
It’s not a great fight by means, however, as Masternak was recently beaten by Johnny Muller and Youri Kayembre Kalenga. We’ve heard Bellew and his promoter Eddie Hearn building up Masternak to be one of the more talented fighters in the cruiserweight division, but at the end of the day, we’re still talking about a guy that was recently beaten by Muller and Kalenga.
You can’t escape that fact, can you? It just makes you wonder why is Hearn matching Bellew up with someonw who was recently beaten insead of matching him up at least with the guys that beat him. Heck, even the guys that recently beat Masternak, Kalenga and Muller, aren’t major players in the cruiserweight division. Muller was recently obliterated by Oleksandr Usyk in 3 rounds in his last fight, and Kalenga was beaten recently by Denis Lebedev. As such, you can see how far removed from the top of the food chain Bellew is by him being matched against Masternak.
Bellew is far, far removed from the top of the division in fighting Masternak on Saturday night instead of one of the talents like Usyk, Lebedev and Grigory Drozd. Speaking of Drozd, he also beat Masternak in stopping him in the 11th round two years ago in 2013.
Bellew, #4 WBO, #6 IBF, #9 WBA, #14 WBC, sees this as his toughest test at cruiserweight thus far, which kind of goes without saying, given how poorly he’s been matched up by his promoter Eddie Hearn. Since Bellew up in weight to the cruiserweight division last year, he’s beaten Arturs Kulikauskis, Ivica Bacurin, Nathan Cleverly, Julio Cesar Dos Santos and Valery Brudov. I hate to say it, but those guys aren’t major players in the cruiserweight division. In fact, I’d say those are all 2nd tier guys and nowhere near the top echelon of fighters in the division.
“This is my biggest test at cruiserweight without a shadow of a doubt,” Bellew said to skysports.com. “Hard fight, 50-50 in my opinion, and I’ve got to go out there and do the business on Saturday. I believe I’m one of the best cruiserweights in the world, without a shadow of a doubt, and I’ll prove that on Saturday night.”
I don’t think that Bellew is one of the best cruiserweights in the division. Nah, I don’t see him as one of the best. I do think Bellew is a good bottom feeder type of cruiserweight. He doesn’t have the frame to be a good cruiserweight in my view. I just see him as a fat light heavyweight, who is fighting in the wrong division. He needs to burn off the flab he’s put on since moving out of the 175lb division, and go back down in weight, because I don’t think he belongs at light heavyweight.
Bellew is right about Masternak being the best test since he moved up inn weight, but that’s not saying anything because Bellew has been matched against HORRIBLE opposition by Hearn. I can’t even see Cleverly, Brudov, Dos Santos, Bacurin and Kalikauskis as bottom fringe level opposition, because I see a lot better fighters at the bottom 15 spot at cruiserweight than those guys. However, Masternak is a monstrous step up in class for Bellew, but he’s still not one of the best fighters in the cruiserweight division in my view.
I rate Masternak as an average fighter at cruiserweight. If Bellew cannot dominate this guy, then it shows you what his level is. I think it’s going to be a life and death fight for Bellew, because he’s just not that good of a fighter for this division. Like I said, Bellew needs to trim off that lard that has collected around his midsection since he moved up in weight, and he needs to go back down to light heavyweight.
When you move up in weight, you’re supposed to add muscle weight in order to fight in a new weight class. You don’t move up in weight and pack on a spare tire around your midsection like Bellew has and call yourself a top cruiserweight. I think Bellew is dreaming. He’s not a top cruiserweight. He’s just flabby out of shape light heavyweight with delusions of grandeur.
“He’s [Masternak] got a look in his eye that he means business, but I think he knows when he looks in my eye that I mean business too,” Bellew said. “I can only lead to one thing and that is hopefully fireworks.”
Well, what does Bellew expect Masternak to look like when he’s facing off with him? Masternak obviously knows what he sees when he looks at the stork-like Bellew, and he can’t wait to get in the ring and chop him down to show him that he doesn’t belong in the cruiserweight division. This probably would have already been done for Masternak by this time if Hearn had the sense enough to match Bellew against Usyk already so that he could get blown out by the Ukrainian and then sent back down to light heavyweight off of a quick knockout loss.
Seriously, if Hearn had already put Bellew in with Usyk or one of the other talented cruiserweights, we probably would have seen Bellew get crushed in one or two rounds by these guys. After a loss to someone like Usyk, I think Bellew would have figured out what time it is and would have either moved back down to light heavyweight or retired. I don’t see there being any opportunities for Bellew at cruiserweight unless he continues to be matched against the 2nd tier fodder that Hearn has been putting him in with.
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