Matchroom boxing’s Eddie Hearn, has claimed that cruiserweight contender, Tony Bellew’s opponent for the Dec. 12 ‘Bad Intentions’ card in London, is a fighter big in both name and status.
Bellew, (25-2-1, 16ko) has had a pretty unimpressive 2015 in the ring, returning from filming new ‘Rocky’ spin-off movie, ‘Creed’ to face unheralded Croatian, Ivica Bacurin (22-8-1, 12ko) in June, eventually forcing a stoppage in the final round of a fight that would have put a glass eye to sleep, before then stopping Latvian journeyman, Arturs Kulikauski’s (16-26-5, 8ko) in September, in another performance of little consequence.
Hearn had been chasing former IBF champion, Yoann Pablo Hernandez for Bellew, before the Germany-based Cuban was stripped of his title and Argentina’s Victor Ramirez was upgraded to full champion status.
Ramirez then defended against Bellew’s 2x former foe, Ovill McKenzie last month instead, and the Scouser’s team had to eventually concede that the world title opportunity they were chasing has passed them by for now.
“See this fight here, right. This is the hardest fight of my career bar Stevenson,” Bellew said to iFLtv about the Dec. 12 fight, which is set to be formally announced Saturday.
“I take my hat off to Tony. I think it’s one of the top fights in the cruiserweight division, personally,” Hearn added. “He didn’t have to take this fight. It’s not for a world title but it’s a status fight, a credibility fight.”
“For what I’ve got coming in the future, there’s not a man alive who would take this fight,” Bellew boasted. “But I do, ’cause I fight.
“One thing I will say is that my fight will probably be one of the most brutal on the night because I won’t take a backward step. Nobody’s ever knocked him out – put him out – before, and I think I’m gonna do it but I’ll have to go through hell to do it.”
Bellew is ranked inside the top #15 with all sanctioning bodies. WBC #12, WBA #10, IBF #6 and WBO #3
Twitter @undilutedpoison
