By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew is eager to get heavyweight David Haye to commit to a pay-per-view fight between them RIGHT Now, otherwise he says he’s going to move on to other big fights like unification fights in the cruiserweight division. It appears to some boxing fans that Bellew is looking for a “cash out” fight to get a big payday on pay-per-view before gets beaten by one of his contenders at cruiserweight.
If Bellew doesn’t get the “cash out” fight against Haye, he’ll soon have to fight his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis, who he should have already fought in his first defense. It looks to some boxing fans like Bellew is dodging the Brieidis fight, because the guy like a giant asteroid heading towards Bellew and he’s not going to be able to stop him once he makes impact.
The only thing Bellew can do right now is dodge Briedis, which he seems to be doing quite nicely. Of course, the WBC could end all this dodging if they would force Bellew to face Brieidis, but it looks like they’re not going to do that. In the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bellew ends up vacating rather than taking on Breidis and getting knocked out. A unification fight will buy Bellew a little time to steer around Brieidis, but I don’t think Bellew can beat any of the champions at cruiserweight. He certainly can’t beat Oleksandr Usyk in my opinion.
Bellew could go after WBA World cruiserweight champion Beibut Shumenov rather than the WBA ‘super’ champion Denis Lebedev. However, I don’t think Bellew could deal with Shumenov. That would be bad match-up for Bellew, because Shumenov is a boxer/puncher with a lot of boxing skills. He’d end up clowning Bellew and making him look bad in front of his own fans in Liverpool. I would recommend that Bellew ever fight Shumenov. The only guys that I think Bellew should be fighting at cruiserweight are the fringe level fighters or the ones without much talent and inflated rankings. Bellew already picked a fringe contender in Flores. It’s going to get embarrassing if Bellew keeps fighting the fringe guys while ignoring his mandatory challenger Brieidis.
Calling himself “the best cruiserweight in the world,” Bellew beat a hapless contender BJ Flores last Saturday night by a 3rd round knockout. Flores didn’t look like he belonged in the ring. The fact that Flores was picked out from the No.14 spot in the World Boxing Council’s top 15 rankings by Bellew and his promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t say much about them.
If you’re the best cruiserweight in the world, then why in the heck are you picking out OLD GUYS like Flores from the bottom of the WBC’s rankings? Flores isn’t even a young fighter at 37. Why fight an old mediocre fighter like Flores if you’re the best cruiserweight?
Bellew said this to skysports.com about wanting Haye to commit to a fight against him:
“Come and fight a real world champion. I am the best cruiserweight in the world and let’s be totally honest here, David Haye isn’t a genuine, legitimate heavyweight. He’s originally a cruiserweight, he once had this belt and now I’m saying I’m the best cruiserweight in the world.”
Gosh, it would sure be nice if Bellew actually proved himself as the best cruiserweight in the world rather than picking out an old guy like BJ Flores, who is nearing 40, and then beating him and crowing about it. Bellew was doing the same thing after he beat Ilunga Makabu last May. Bellew said he was now the best cruiserweight in the world after beating a guy that had to rally to defeat fringe contender Thabuso Mchunu. The reality of the situation is that no one knows yet who the best cruiserweight in the world is, because the top guys haven’t faced each other yet.
The best cruiserweights in the world are these fighters: Denis Lebedev, Oleksandr Usyk, Krzystof Glowacki, Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev, Bellew and Krzystof Wlodarczyk. Glowacki was just beaten by Usyk. However, that doesn’t mean that Glowacki couldn’t beat Bellew. In fact, I think Glowacki would totally destroy Bellew, because his slugging style of fighting would be made to order for Glowacki. Never the less, without Bellew fighting these guys, he can’t say he’s the best cruiserweight in the world. Of course, Bellew can say anything he wants to fool the boxing public into thinking he’s the best, but he’s just flapping his gums and going in the opposite direction of where he needs to go in order to prove himself as the best.
As far as the unification match that Bellew is talking about, he’s referring to a fight against 37-year-old Lebedev. Bellew isn’t talking about wanting to fight Usyk. That’s a fight I guarantee you WILL NEVER happen.
Bellew will NEVER fight Usyk in my view. Usyk is just WAY too good for Bellew to even consider tangling with. The guy that Bellew wants is Lebedev, who is getting in the long in the tooth after a long 15-year pro career. However, I still see Lebedev as being too good for Bellew. I don’t think that fights ever going to happen between him and Bellew. Lebedev might not be a champion for too much longer, as he has a fight against knockout artist Murat Gassiev (23-0, 17 KOs) on December 3 in Moscow, Russia. I’m giving Gassiev a really good chance of winning that fight due to his youth, size and one-punch power that he possesses in both hands. Gassiev is a real cruiserweight. I think he would destroy Bellew in one round. It would be worse than the beat down that Adonis Stevenson gave Bellew in 2013, because Gassiev is a bigger and harder puncher than Stevenson. Gassiev spars with heavyweights like Deontay Wilder. He’s the real deal.
“He has to commit to something because right now he’s committing to nothing,” said Bellew about Haye. “I’m about big fights, mega-fights, and if it’s not him it’s got to be a unification fight, it’s as simple as that. I’m not waiting around for David Haye, He is not the be-all and end-all of my career. I am the best cruiserweight in the world.”
I’d be very, very surprised if Bellew fights a unification match. If he does, then he’s cashing out in a smaller money fight than what he’d make for the Haye fight. Bellew can’t beat Lebedev, Usyk or Shumenov in my view. The only fight of that bunch that would make Bellew any money is the Lebedev fight, and he’d lose that one badly.
Lebedev is a Russian southpaw with heavy hands and a steel chin. The shots that BJ Flores was bouncing off Bellew’s chin last Saturday night would be knockout blows if Lebedev was the one that was landing them. It would be a brutal destruction in my opinion if Bellew got tossed into the ring with Lebedev. That’s why I think it’s a HUGE bluff on Bellew’s part by saying to Haye that he’ll take a unification match if he doesn’t commit to a fight against him. Bellew has got to know he can’t beat any of the cruiserweight champions in the division. He’s also got to know he can’t beat the top contenders either. We’ve seen who Bellew can beat and that’s fringe contender Flores and Makabu. Those are two flawed fighters that arguably didn’t deserve to be rated in the top 15.