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of fighter, would pose a challenge that Bellew
would have to adapt for. But, in the first round
Mckenzie was quick out of the blocks, and sent
Bellew crashing to the canvas before doing the
same in the 2nd round. The biggest test of his
career was going horribly for Bellew. But he
fought well in the third and eventually the
momentum began to swing back towards ‘the
bomber’. In the 8th round, after the panic of the
first two, Bellew managed to knock his opponent
down and keep him there, winning the fight and
overcoming immense adversity to do so. It was
a real indication of Bellew’s talent as Mckenzie
separates the good from the bad, overhyped to
the real deals.
A few months later, with Jurgen Braehmer
having pulled out his scheduled WBO title fight
with Nathan Cleverly, Bellew stepped in as a late
replacement with only three days to go. As such,
Bellew was forced to lose 16 pounds in one day,
no doubt putting him in the foulest of moods in
the run up to the press conference, which was
explosive to say the least. With George Groves
and James Degale already providing
entertainment with their verbal exchanges,
Cleverly and Bellew took things to a different
level. Verbals were exchanged, Cleverly calling
Bellew a bum and Bellew responding with jibes
about Cleverly’s level of opposition. It didn’t take
long for the pair to try and trade blows, but it was
ended swiftly by the security personnel on hand.
In the end, Bellew couldn’t make the weight in
such short time. But make no mistake about it,
this is where the rivalry between the two began.
With the fight starting at a ferocious pace, Bellew
repeatedly landed solid punches in the first few
rounds, even wobbling cleverly in the second.
With his dreams of emulating John Conteh on
the line, Bellew came into the fight fired up, but
eventually cleverly was able to tame the proverbial bull in the china shop and go on to win a
close majority decision, with scored of 114-114,
117-112 and 116-113. Broken hearted, he knew
the only place to go from here was the drawing
board, as well as up.
The road back to major honours started with an
easy 5th round win over Danny Macintosh,
regaining the British title in the process.
In the midst of that fight, the relationship
between Frank Warren and Tony Bellew had
become strained, so much so that Bellew
decided to move over to the still upcoming
Matchroom sport stable and take on the
dangerous Edison Miranda in London.
With the support of David Price and Paul Smith
in the crowd, Bellew knocked the savvy veteran
out in the 9th round and followed that win up
with a unanimous decision victory over Roberto
Bolonti, despite suffering a bad cut early on.
With his star now firmly re-established, Isaac
Chilemba was brought over to Liverpool with the
mandatory challenger status on the line. One
step away from fighting for a world title again,
Bellew knew the stakes were high, and in
Chilemba he had a slick opponent who would be
tough to beat in front of him. Like the
Cleverly fight, Bellew started well, landing good
crisp shots looking energetic for the first few
rounds. Eventually though, the tables began to
turn and Chilemba started to get on top,
making Bellew miss and frustrate him in the
process. Eventually, when the final bell finally
rang, a draw was announced, with both fighters
outraged at the result.
The fight was made for November 31st, none
other than Bellew’s birthday, in Stevenson’s
hometown of Quebec, Canada. With the odds
already stacked against him, struggling to make
the weight did not help, and knowing he would
likely need a knockout or a very clear clinical like
boxing display to win, Bellew had a mountain to
climb.
When the fight got underway, Bellew was
outboxed for the majority of it. Struggling to get
himself into things at all, Stevenson’s superiority
was glaringly obvious. In the sixth round, hopes
of emulating John Conteh were evaporated.
A crisp left hand from Stevenson ended the
proceedings in the sixth round.
Again, Bellew had to go back to the drawing
board. Deciding that light heavyweight was too
hard to make, he moved up to cruiserweight.
Since then Valery Brudov and Julio Cesar Dos
Santos have been dispatched, with only Brudov
putting up a bit of a fight.
This has led to one thing. The rematch. After
losing his light heavyweight belt to the hard
hitting Sergey Kovalev, Cleverly also moved up
to cruiserweight, and has also beaten two over
matched opponents. The rivalry between the
two is intense. The hatred genuine.
Bellew says that at cruiserweight he hits harder,
and he can back that up with ius amateur
exploits. In this writer’s opinion, 175lbs was
suited to cleverly, whils t 200lbs is suited to
Bellew. And with the fight also taking place at
the echo arena again, the advantages are all
with Bellew in my opinion. But we will just have
to wait and see what the fight, and the future,
hold for Tony ‘the bomber’ Bellew. BMM
With a fight with Cleverly off the cards for now,
Bellew decided to give Mckenzie the rematch
that many thought he deserved, with the British
title also on the line. As they say, rematches
usually aren’t as good as the first fight, and this
was very much the case again, as Bellew cruised
to a relatively simple unanimous decision.
With his record now standing at 16-0, Frank
Warren couldn’t resist the temptation of
matching up his two leading light heavyweights,
who just happened to hate each other. Bellew
has since claimed he was a novice at the time
and wasn’t ready for a world title fight. But he
did have the advantage of the fight being in
Liverpool.
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NOVEMBER 2014
issue #14
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issue #14 NOVEMBER 2014
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