Boxing Thread

[Egg Shen]

i think its gonna be one of those fights that from the opening minute you realise that Bellew is in over his head. Bellew's recent run has been pretty unbelievable but he's not on the level seem to be putting him on. 

Undercard is decent too...lil sky preview write up:

https://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/11067/11547964/usyk-vs-bellew-starring-undercard-with-anthony-crolla-josh-kelly-david-allen-and-ricky-burns

Edited November 10, 2018 by Egg Shen

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Bellew won't win a round, he's going to spend the entire fight eating Usyk's jab and chasing shadows. 

[Rossman]

Tony Bellew's success is down to Eddie Hearn's promotion. It's amazing what people buy into. He called himself the best at cruiserweight but has never fought or defeated anyone who's held a world title in that division. His best win is probably against Mateusz Masternak and he's just above Euro level.

They brought over Illabu Makabu as if he was John Mugabi fighting Marvin Hagler. Turns out he packed a punch and had no chin. Hasn't been seen since. Then came part time boxer, full time announcer BJ Flores who was one of the easiest fights you could find. He had to hit him with a low blow and elbow to the head to finish that one. The two Haye charades, Bellew's inability to stop a one legged boxer and fighting a man who's ego thinks he should be fighting but his body is telling him not to.

Whatever weapons you have against Usyk he will defuse them. Gassiev is a bigger puncher than Bellew and he couldn't touch Usyk. You can't hit what you can't catch. Briedis was his hardest fight but his conditioning and power shots are positively similar. Bellew does not have the same workrate as Briedis and definitely not the same as Usyk. Watch Bellew blow out of his arse for a long period of the fight. The fatigue will lead to mistakes, then maybe a stoppage.

[Porkchopcash]

Didnt you know? You cant write off Tony Bellew. It’s only the British pundits giving Bellew a chance really. Ive only seen 3 Usyk fights and he has looked the business. Tbh i knew little about the people he fought.  

The thing is anything could happen in this fight. Bellew has potential to turn it into a stinker or a war. Bellew can take a punch as well. I think Rossmans assesment is a bit harsh tbf. Bellew has looked very good at cruiserweight, its his natural weight. He destroyed Haye in the second fight. Saying that, Usyk is huge and looks brilliant. This i think will be used to be the Usyk measuring stick. I hope Bellew pulls it off but its a big ask. Bellew wont let his corner pull him out. Im going for either a convincing pts win for Usyk or a late ko for bellew.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Porkchopcash

[jimufctna24]

Well I had that 1 round either way before the stoppage. I gave Bellew rounds 1-3, and Usyk 4, 6 and 7. I had round 5 very close. Bellew looked fucked from round 6 onward. I am not sure if Usyk rattled him or Bellew had run out of steam (or both). The knockout was pretty brutal. Usyk has certainly built a profile for himself now. I look forward to seeing him at heavyweight. 

Bellew isn't half going on post-fight. He's a bit marmite is Bellew. But I have a soft spot for him. 

Crolla and Burns looked good. Burns in particular looked better than I expected. 

[W35ty]

I had Bellew winning the first 4 and lost/losing everything after.

I think Sky need to re-think the way they interview KO'd fighters after the fight like UFC did.

[Egg Shen]

13 minutes ago, W35ty said:

 

I think Sky need to re-think the way they interview KO'd fighters after the fight like UFC did.

it was shocking. They went in for the glorious bow-out speech but Bellew didnt really know what was going on, when he asked what round the fight ended in for the second time they should have wrapped it up but they just kept the mic in his face, poor form. Bellew will remember none of that tomorrow.

Good fight though, Bellew started brilliantly but class took over, once Usyk adjusted to stop Bellew using his right hand it was game over, brutal stoppage.

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by Egg Shen

[gmoney]

Good fight, Bellew rubs me up the wrong way completely, so I was delighted when he got knocked the fuck out. He looked good at the start, and ruined it be doing that twatty "come on" stuff. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by gmoney

[wandshogun09]

I’ve made no secret that I’ve never been a Bellew fan but even I’ve got to say fair play to him for taking on a fight like this and going out on his shield. He was always going to be fighting an uphill battle but he gave it a good go. 

I kind of felt like the early rounds, when the commentators were talking like Bellew was schooling him, that it was almost similar to the Mayweather vs McGregor thing where Mayweather kind of took the first few rounds off to get a read on his opponent and gauge the timing and distance etc. I thought it was clear that’s what Usyk was doing. To hear the commentators though you’d think it was Drago vs Creed with Bellew as Drago. Thought the commentary was really one sided again, as it always is when a Sky man is fighting. Paulie Malignaggi was the most balanced one for me whereas the others were looking for reasons to say Bellew was running away with it or not wanting to give Usyk credit when he did anything. Bellew was doing his bit well and I had him winning the first 3 or 4 rounds but you could see Usyk warming up by the 5th and 6th and it came right at the same time that Bellew started slowing down. Usyk just took over and he was too much.

I said I had a feeling he’d get the stoppage but I didn’t envision anything that clean and vicious. You could see at the ending sequence there when Usyk was really pouring it on that it was going to end badly for Bellew but I thought that any minute it was going to be the ref diving between them and calling it off, then Usyk fucking walloped him and he went down like a sack of spuds. Scary knockout. The sight of Bellew dropping, legs straight out, neck bouncing off the ropes, and a heartbroken Eddie Hearn jumping out of his seat and almost grabbing Bellew’s head was like something you’d see in a movie. 

I’ve never been keen on Hearn either but you could see how genuinely concerned he was for Bellew there. He seemed to lose all concept of where he was and that the ref hadn’t even started his count yet and just wanted to help his mate. To be honest, I don’t even know why the ref bothered with a count. The way Bellew went down, the way his neck whiplashed off the bottom rope, the way his eyes looked and how he was moving as he tried to get up, there was no way he could’ve or should’ve been allowed to carry on and I think the corner would’ve thrown in the towel anyway. He was as done as done can be. 

Interesting times ahead for Usyk. There’s nothing left to do really at Cruiserweight so that move to Heavyweight is coming in 2019. So many great fights to be made and all fresh. Heavyweight Boxing is actually really interesting now. More than it ever has been in my lifetime really. There’s a real solid mix of heavies now that you can mix and match for some good fights and adding Usyk to that is going to make it even more fun. He brings a completely different style of fighting and personality to that division. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by wandshogun09

[tiger_rick]

Never liked Tony Bellend either but he fought a good fight until Usyk really stepped up around the fifth. The number of people who thought he could win was remarkable though. There was even one idiot on my FB spouting the "Who has he ever fought?" stuff. Like beating a broken down David Haye makes you Anthony Joshua all of a sudden.

[TildeGuy~!]

Any big UK based fight bring the ‘experts’ out of the woodwork

[David]

I thought Bellew did okay, he just came up against someone who's a level or two above, that's all. Nowt wrong with that.

The interview segments were cringeworthy, the fella shouldn't be chatting after getting flattened like that, he should be whisked backstage and looked over by medical experts, not asking people what round the fight finished in front of a TV audience.

[wandshogun09]

@tiger_rick It seems to be the case a lot with combat sports that a lot of people tend to favour the guy who talks the best and loudest in a lot of these fights. I’m no expert, I get a shitload of predictions wrong but to me, picking Bellew to beat Usyk and picking McGregor to beat Khabib are the big ones this year that kind of baffled me. And it seemed like tons of people were picking like that. I didn’t really see how either Bellew or McGregor would win those fights, well I did but it was massively unlikely to actually happen. Yet the way a lot of people were going on before both fights it was a foregone conclusion. I think for some it was partly that they hadn’t seen much of Usyk or Khabib but I really think a big part of it is just that, with guys like Bellew and McGregor who talk loads and have self belief out the arse, they get swept up in it and the confidence of guys like that convinces them.

I know it’s not the same thing because Bellew and McGregor are actual legitimate pro fighters but it reminds me of when I was at school. There was a gobby kid in my year who was always banging on about how hard he was and everyone seemed to just believe him because he talked like he was a hardcase so often. In reality he was a little mouthy rat and looking back now I can see that his bravado was all bollocks based on insecurity and it was almost certainly a defence mechanism he used so that nobody would start on him. But from Year 7 to 10 everyone just took his word for it that he was Johnny Concrete. Then he started giving this chubby quiet kid shit, obviously thinking he was an ‘easy win’ and the kid fucked him up in Science one afternoon. Bad. Like I say, not comparing Bellew or McGregor to some little shitbag at school but I always find it funny how some people never seem to grow out of that mindset of believing that the loudest guy in the room is the hardest. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by wandshogun09

[David]

Wasn't it more to do with the promoter and TV company, both of who stood to make some decent coin by selling the fight as being competitive? Most boxing insiders knew the gulf in class, but if Hearn, Sky and the pundits all just said "Yeah, ol' Tone is getting flattened here folks, fuck all to see" then I doubt it would have done much for buys?

Those posting on Facebook and other social channels are usually the casual fan who tune in for the big fights, and get their information not from watching guys like Usyk in the past but from Sky Sports build up shows and so on, so it makes sense that they'll buy into the hype.

If they didn't, the sport (both MMA and boxing) would crumble.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

When you could hear Dave Cauldwell giving the "This is your last fight, you gotta dig deep" speech in the corner at the end of the 7th I said to my brother that if Bellew was getting that speech with potentially 5 rounds left he was in trouble. I said at that point he'd be stopped in the 9th.

As bad as the interview with Sky was, the one on BBC radio was worse. Bellew asked Mike Costello how the fight had ended because he didn't know. Boxers need better medical care after fights than that. 

4 minutes ago, David said:

Wasn't it more to do with the promoter and TV company, both of who stood to make some decent coin by selling the fight as being competitive? Most boxing insiders knew the gulf in class, but if Hearn, Sky and the pundits all just said "Yeah, ol' Tone is getting flattened here folks, fuck all to see" then I doubt it would have done much for buys?

It wasn't more to do with that, it was 100% to do with that. Promoter, fighter, and TV company have to get paid. They need the casual fans to buy the PPV. The boxing insiders are buying it anyway. That is just how promotion works. It surprises me that someone as astute as you David felt the need to articulate this. Everyone who posts in here knows how the boxing game is played.