Tony Bellew v Isaac Chilemba

Slow enough day on here today, maybe because it's a Monday.

I don't know too much about Bellew's opponent and have never seen him fight - anybody know if he's any good or should Bellew get through this relatively comfortably?

How do we see this one going at the weekend?

Fairly decently ranked fighter, a win would definitely take him ahead of Clev now in my eyes. UD written all over it.

Interestingly the Bomber is also scheduled in (according to BoxRec) to fight just 2 months after on the Froch-Kessler undercard.

Busy boy!

I always get the feeling that Bellew is a dump away from missing weight. He should move up a division. I've read that he's killing himself to make weight. It could catch up on him.

Doesn't look like he's killing himself though. Always has that 'fleshy' look, a bit like De Gale.

Just what I read and he does look drawn at weigh in.

The issue of Bellew's weight and how it's effecting him (or if it is effecting him at all) will never go away as long as he's at Light-Heavy, I reckon.

On one hand, he keeps making the 175 lb limit and his past four or five fights have generally shown an improvement from the lad who was in danger of getting blasted out early against McKenzie first time out.

But on the other, it's well known that his ABA titles came at Heavyweight, where be boxed as a rock-solid 200 lb, and that he has looked a little out of puff towards the end of fights before, the Cleverly fight being the prime example. Although his performance was much better than was expected, guys in the know such as Anthony Farnell were bemoaning the fact that he was still at 175 afterwards, saying that he was dead at the weight with no legs under him and that it had cost him the fight.

Problem is, Bellew's not quite the monster puncher he sometimes gets described as, and that will be even more problematic at Cruiser. I'm in the minority on this, but I'm still not quite sure whether or not Bellew has a world title in him at either 175 or 200. There just seems to be that little somthing missing in his arsenal right now.

Hope I'm wrong, though.

I like him. His attitude is spot on. He wants to fight the best or better opponents. But as you say there seems to be something missing in his game which will prevent him from winning a strap. He seems to be a nearly man.

Well, I'd back him to beat Clev now in a return, so that'd be his route to a title at 175.

I think Clev will out hustle him and nick it down the stretch.

He's a decent operator, beat Mirando over 10 but has little power to trouble Bellew.

Chilemba apparently climbed off the canvas twice to outpoint an opponent. Bellew says he's a tough nut and he'll have to dig deep for the win. Sounds like a LH version of N'Dou - here to last the distance.

Should be a really competitive fight and a hard one to call

Have only seen one fight if chilemba's and that was the win over Miranda, who Bellew fought after this loss, and he looked very good and he also has a draw against Oosthuzen (spelling) who is a very good boxer

Don't think he is that big at the weight so Bellew might just be able to outmuscle him

Bellew is stuck a bit as cruiserweight is 25lbs jump and its not exactly a division that gets alot of attention. He can make 175, but isn't making it comfortably and its hurting him

TopHat24/7 wrote:Doesn't look like he's killing himself though. Always has that 'fleshy' look, a bit like De Gale.

Weight drained boxers do often lack any definition from what I've seen. Rios v Murray for example.

His power would certainly benifit from fighting at a more natural weight, but sadly nobody cares about cruiser.

huck, afolabi, hernandez, tarver, lebedev and chambers are all at cruiser at the minute, its not to bad of a division, not much different from lhw

I'd say you've just put a strong case forward for him staying at LH.

I had a look at the ring ratings recently and the light heavyweight division must be at an all time low. To be fair I think they had left out Bute/Pascal but a top ten included Cleverly, Bellew, Chilemba, Murat, Braehmer, Shumenov and Campillo. Im not sure any of them would even beat a peak Clinton Woods.

John Bloody Wayne wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Doesn't look like he's killing himself though. Always has that 'fleshy' look, a bit like De Gale.

Weight drained boxers do often lack any definition from what I've seen. Rios v Murray for example.

His power would certainly benifit from fighting at a more natural weight, but sadly nobody cares about cruiser.

When I think of 'weight drained' I think of Hatton v Pac or ODLH v Pac, that really drawn look. Bellew never looks like that to me.

Agree he's between a rock and a hard place though, bust a gut to make a more glamorous more money 175 division or fight more naturally a stone or so heavier where money is poor and nobody will pay much attention to him.

He seems like a really nice stand up guy, keen to do best by his family, so I think he'll stick where the money is.