By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew has been given permission by the World Boxing Council to freeze his WBC title and move up to heavyweight to challenge David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) on March 4.
The fight is already sold out for the O2 Arena in London, England. It’ll be shown on Sky Box Office PPV despite the fact that it’s a non-title fight. Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) has to inform the WBC shortly after the Haye fight whether he’ll be staying at heavyweight or coming back down to cruiserweight to defend his title against the winner of the Marco Huck vs. Mairis Briedis fight.
Those two fighters will be facing each other for the interim WBC cruiserweight title. The WBC wants the Huck-Briedis fight to take place just in case Bellew chooses to stay at heavyweight. For that to happen, Bellew will either need to beat Haye be competitive with him in a close loss.
If Bellew is even competitive, it might be enough of an excuse for his promoter Eddie Hearn to throw him in the ring with IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Bellew and Joshua are both with Hearn’s Matchroom Sport promotions, so it would be an easy fight for him to make. He wouldn’t have to deal with any other promotion to put it together. I don’t think it really matters if Bellew loses to Haye.
As long as Bellew is slightly competitive at times, Hearn can say, ‘Bellew’s stock has risen with the British boxing public’ and then put him in with Joshua. We saw how Hearn has been saying that his fighter IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s stock has risen after he was stopped in 5 rounds by IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in their fight last September. Brook didn’t do much but run around the ring, land a few shots before his trainer threw in the towel in the 5th. I liken it to someone running a 200 meter race and having the race stopped after 20 meters when they were briefly doing well. Yeah, Brook landed some shots on Golovkin in the first two rounds, but the fight was a massacre from the 3rd round on. If we’re going to see the same thing with Bellew landing some shots against Haye in the early going before a towel is thrown into the ring to have his fight stopped, will Hearn tell the boxing fans that Bellew’s stock has gone up from the loss?
It’s hard to imagine Bellew going well enough against Haye for him to remain at heavyweight. As much as I’d like to think that Bellew will be competitive against Haye on March 4, I cannot see it happening. Haye is too fast, too powerful and too skilled for the easy to hit Bellew.
Bellew says he’s the biggest draw in the cruiserweight division, and that no one knows who the other cruiserweights are at this time. It’s troubling that Bellew, 33, believes he’s the most notable fighter in the division because it suggests that he’s underestimating the knowledge the boxing public has about fighters like WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk and IBF champion Murat Gassiev.
“I’m the biggest draw at CW! That’s not up for debate. That’s just a fact. Nobody knows the other cruisers! I’m pound WBC champ!” said Bellew.
I’m not sure where Bellew is going with his babbling about him being the biggest draw and the best known of the cruiserweights in the division. Does this mean that Bellew shouldn’t have to defend his WBC title against the winner of the Marco Huck vs. Mairis Briedis fight? I’m sorry, but Bellew is going to have to face the winner of that fight if he wants to hold onto his WBC title. the WBC isn’t going to let Bellew keep his WBC title like it’s a trophy that he can sit on for the next two to three years without defending it against his mandatory challenger. Bellew is going to need to face the best and bea thtem if he wants to keep the WBC. Bellew picked up the WBC title the easy way in beating Ilunga Makabu last May to win the vacant WBC belt. He then defended it against fringe level cruiserweight #14 WBC BJ Flores instead of defending it against his #1 WBC contender Briedis. The WBC let Bellew face Flores rather than Bredis. The WBC is now letting Bellew freeze his WBC cruiserweight title while he moves up to heavyweight to fight Haye. I’m not sure why the WBC is doing this, because it puts the top contenders’ careers on hold because they have to wait on Bellew while he fights outside of the division. To me, that’s bad for boxing.
I hate to break this to Bellew, but he’s not well known in the U.S with the casual boxing fans. His fights aren’t televised there, so he’s an unknown. Usyk recently had his fight against Thabiso Mchunu televised in the U.S. As such, I would have to say that Usyk is better known that Bellew. Yeah, Bellew is better known in the UK than Usyk, but we’re talking about a much smaller country, aren’t we?
