In one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in a while, WBC Silver light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (19-1-1, 12 KO’s) was given a 12 round draw against challenger Isaac Chilemba (20-1-2, 9 KO’s) tonight in Bellew’s home city of Liverpool, at the Echo Arena in the UK.
Chilemba completely controlled the last 9 rounds of the fight, and deserved a clear win by making the 6’2″ Bellew miss again and again with his shots. At the same time, Bellew got away with an awful of fouling in the fight in terms of holding and hitting, throwing a shot after the bell, a head butt and push that occurred after the 1st round had ended, and a handful of rabbit shots.
It look like the referee was just there to watch the fight instead of controlling it. The final judges scores were 116-112 for Chilema, 116-115 for Bellew, and 114-114 even. I scored the fight 117-111 for Chilemba.
Bellew almost had a fit after the scores were read, as he grimaced and looked like he was about to start weeping. During the interview after the fight, Bellew complained bitterly, saying “I thought I had won the fight. Chilemba’s own trainer came up to me and said that he thought I had won the fight.”
I think Bellew is kidding himself if he really thinks he deserved to win the fight. It doesn’t matter what Chilemba’s trainer said to him out of kindness after the fight, Bellew did not deserve to win anything tonight, and he certainly didn’t deserve to get a draw.
Other boxing results on the card:
Derry Mathews draw 12 Anthony Crolla
Thomas Stalker pts 4 Andrew Harris
Perry-Metcalf pts 4 Liam Griffiths
Khalid Yafai pts 8 Michael Ramabeletsa
Callum Smith RTD 1 Iain Jackson
James Dickens UD 10 Jon Fernandes
Rocky Fielding TKO 6 Wayne Reed
