Bellew-McIntosh battle it out on 4/14

By Boxing News - 03/10/2012 - Comments

Image: Bellew-McIntosh battle it out on 4/14By Sean McDaniel: Next month British light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (16-1, 10 KO’s) will be defending his title against Danny McIntosh (13-2, 7 KO’s) in a 12 round bout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Bellew, 29, was beaten by WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly last October in a fight where Cleverly exposed Bellew’s lack of stamina by turning up the heat on him by fighting at a fast pace until Bellew had little left in the past four rounds.

McIntosh, 32, now has a great blueprint to use in order to beat the hard hitting Bellew. McIntosh doesn’t quite have the same power as Bellew, but it’s close enough to where he may pull off a slight upset by stopping or wearing him down. I like McIntosh in this fight because he’s not only got good size and power, but he’s fearless. He’s not afraid to mix it up and get hit in the process of trying to get a stoppage.

Bellew used to fight like that until he mixed it up with Ovil McKenzie in July 2011 and got put on the canvas twice in the fight before coming back to get a stoppage in the 8th. Bellew hasn’t looked the same since then, as he’s now more of a boxer/sometimes puncher rather than the puncher he used to be. McIntosh can take advantage of that by putting the heat on him and forcing Bellew to trade and use up his energy quickly. Bellew loses his power when he becomes tired out and that’s a real plus for McIntosh because he’ll keep throwing with power for as long as the fight lasts.

Bellew will likely try and box McIntosh rather than electing to slug with him in order to save himself from potentially getting put on the canvas again like he was against McKenzie. Bellew slugged a little with Cleverly in his last fight, but that was only because Cleverly can’t punch.



Comments are closed.