Tony Bellew predicts Whyte will stop Povetkin

By Boxing News - 03/22/2021 - Comments

By Jeff Aronow: Tony Bellew is predicting a stoppage win for Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte in his rematch with Alexander Povetkin this Saturday night at Gibraltar on March 27th. Whyte vs. Povetkin 2 can be seen by boxing fans on DAZN and Sky Box Office.

The former WBC cruiserweight champion Bellew says Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) will start in where he left off last time they fought in August of last year at the Matchroom Boxing Fight Camp in Brentwood, Essex.

As long as Whyte starts in where he left off in the fourth, he should be fine against the 2004 Olympic gold medalist and former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs).

But if Whyte starts back in where he left off in the fifth, he’s going to be taking a snooze on Saturday.  Let’s be real. The fifth round was an unmitigated disaster for Whyte and his many loyal boxing fans.

Povetkin took advantage of Whyte’s flaws

Whyte, 32, was having his way with Povetkin through four rounds, knocking him down twice and seemingly on his win to victory.

Image: Tony Bellew predicts Whyte will stop Povetkin

Unfortunately for Whyte, tragedy struck in the fifth round when Povetkin separated him from his senses after landing a perfect left uppercut that knocked him cold.

Whyte lost not only the fight, but also his WBC interim heavyweight title and his mandatory status, which was the valuable golden ticket that he needed to challenge for the title against WBC champion Tyson Fury.

If not for the loss to Povetkin, Whyte would have surely fought for the world title against Fury last December.

“I think he will pick up where he left off in the first fight,” said Tony Bellew to iFL TV about Dillian Whyte in his rematch with Povetkin. “He was doing so well until that one single lapse of concentration.

Bellew: Whyte was hit with a once in a lifetime punch

“He was one punch away from winning. I’m not saying it was a lucky punch from Povetkin, but what I am saying is it was a once in a career lifetime punch,” said Bellew.

Perhaps Bellew hasn’t been following Povetkin’s career, so you can give him a break for not being aware of his many past knockout victories.

Alexander’s stoppage of Whyte wasn’t an extraordinary thing for him in terms of what he’s done during his career. Povetkin has knocked out a lot of different fighters, some of which had early success against him before he caught them.

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Bellew fails to mention that Whyte has had problems in the past, losing to Anthony Joshua, and struggling to defeat Oscar Rivas, Joseph Parker, and Dereck Chisora. Those fighters showed Whyte’s level.

What we learned from watching Whyte during his career is that he’s a good B-level guy, but not an elite-level fighter, and he’s got a flaw in his game that leaves him susceptible to uppercuts.

The way that Bellew talks, he seems to believe that Povetkin wasn’t going to land one of his big shots at some point.

It would be understandable for Bellew to say that it was a miracle punch by Povetkin if those a fight that had gone into the deeper rounds.

That wasn’t the case. The fight had literally just started at the time that Povetkin knocked Whyte out in the fifth, so you can’t call it a “once in a lifetime” punch.

Dillian will stop Povetkin says, Bellew

“You don’t go down twice in a fight, out on your feet, and then throw a punch that comes from the middle of nowhere and put your opponent out,” Bellew said about Povetkin’s one-punch knockout of Whyte.

That rarely happens, that happens once a career. It’s very rare that you can name me where it’s been done on multiple occasions. I can’t think of many others other than Nigel Benn perhaps Julian Jackson,” said Bellew.

Up until the fifth round, Povetkin hadn’t thrown more than a handful of punches in the fight, and it looked like he was waiting.

He’s 41, and he wasn’t going to expend a lot of energy attempting to match the younger fighter Dillian’s output.

Moreover, Povetkin knew that he wanted to take advantage of Whyte’s habit of leaning forward when throwing his hooks, which he eventually did by catching him with an uppercut in the fifth.

Image: Tony Bellew predicts Whyte will stop Povetkin

“Two fighters out of how many hundreds of thousands,” said Bellew in discussing the rarity of coming from one-punch knockout wins.

“They’re the only two fighters I think [that have pulled out knockout wins when trailing]. You’ve done wrong more than twice.

So, I think Dillian will go up there next week and prove everybody wrong, and just get the win. I think he will beat Povetkin and I think he will stop him,” said Bellew in making a prediction.