Bellew and Wilder involved in altercation at Joshua-Klitschko weigh-in

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew started yapping at WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder at Friday’s Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko weigh-in, which boxing fans felt was premeditated on Bellew’s part. The big punching 6’7” Wilder appeared to get EXTREMELY angry at one point during the war of words. Fortunately for Bellew, there was a small fence that separated the two fighters.

I’d hate to have seen what might have happened if Wilder had stepped over that fence and gone after Bellew. We are talking about 5” inch height and a considerable power advantage Wilder would have over Bellew. I think it would have been a size mismatch.

What started the altercation was Wilder yelling, ‘Bomb Squad.” Immediately after that, Bellew started flapping his gums, complaining about Wilder. I don’t know why Bellew got so upset about Wilder saying two simple words to his many boxing fans inside the house. The only thing I could think of is Bellew might have had a problem with Wilder getting the attention from Joshua and Wladimir and putting it on himself.

The security was on hand to make sure that Bellew and Wilder didn’t go after each other. Wilder was wearing his shades and he looked pretty cool. Now if Wilder had torn the shades off, then I would have been worried for Bellew, because it would have meant that he was ready for combat.

Someone from Wilder’s group later got into it with Bellew after he walked away. It’s unclear who the guy was, but he looked like he wanted a piece of Bellew. He even said he would get him in the ring. I’m not sure if the guy is a boxer or not. Whoever it was, he really looked angry. Bellew wasn’t sweating him too much, as he was surrounded by members of his own team, as well as some big security guys.

Wilder and Bellew are both working as commentators for the Sky Sports Box Office team on Saturday night for the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England. David Haye will also be working for Sky Box Office as well. There was some concern that Haye and Bellew might get into it if they bumped into each other during the fight. Bellew says he has no problems with Haye, because he beat him last March. If anything, it would be Haye that might have a problem with Bellew. With the way that Haye was pouring praise over the head of Bellew after losing to him on March 4, I kind of doubt he’ll give him any problems on Saturday. Haye wants the rematch with Bellew. He’s not going to mess it up by stepping on his toes during the Joshua-Klitschko fight.

Bellew recently moved up to heavyweight and defeated an injured former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye by an 11th round knockout on March 4. Bellew was losing the fight until Haye injured his right Achilles tendon. I was only after the injury that Bellew was able to take over the fight. Ever since then, Bellew has been crowing about his win like a happy rooster. The sad part is he doesn’t acknowledge the fact that he fought a one-legged man. Bellew had a TREMENDOUS handicap in that fight. It’s a one-legged fighter is a far different thing than beating someone with two healthy legs.

It’s shockingly sad that Bellew takes credit for the win. I think a lot of fighters would be low key about winning that way, but not Bellew. He’s been bragging about the win over Haye ever since. I don’t know why. Now it looks like Bellew is setting his sights on a bigger name in Deontay. Bellew shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for that fight to happen, because Wilder wants a unification fight against Joshua or Joseph Parker next. He doesn’t want to fight a non-heavyweight like Bellew.

“Deontay is going to be in the building. I’ll enjoy sizing myself up against him,” said Bellew to skysports.com BEFORE the altercation with the American talent.

There was a lot of swear words tossed around during the Bellew-Wilder altercation. Other than that, it seemed pretty harmless. Just a bunch of yapping by Bellew against a guy that has knocked out almost everyone he’s faced. Wilder wants to get his hands on Joshua so that he can unseat him as the IBF champion. Hopefully that fight can happen next after the Klitschko fight.

Anthony Joshua weighs in at a career high of 250.1lbs at weigh-in for Wladimir Klitschko fight

Anthony Joshua weighed in at a career high today for his important fight with Wladimir Klitschko. The 250.1lbs represents the highest weight of Joshua’s still young 4-year pro career. The weight is 10 pounds heavier than Wladimir’s weigh-in weight of 240.5 lbs. Just what the 27-year-old Joshua intends on doing with his weight advantage is the big question. I would applaud Joshua for being bigger and more muscular than Wladimir if he was facing a stationary fighter, but that’s not the way that the Ukrainian fighter competes. Wladimir is a scientific fighter, who uses his brains and his considerable boxing skills to win his fights. He’s not going to stand there and let Joshua smash him with power shots.

Joshua’s boxing fans booed Klitschko as he came out for the weigh-in. The 41-year-old Wladimir showed absolutely zero emotion as he looked directly at the fans as they booed him. Wladimir looked almost bored as he stared the fans, as if he were about to fall asleep. Wladimir clearly expected the booing, so the fans weren’t doing anything to shock or unnerve the former champion. Now if the fans had started cheering, I think that would have thrown Wladimir off his game a little, because it would have been so unexpected of them. Wladimir stood in front of the fans and flashed a peace sign to pacify them. This didn’t work though, as the fans continued to boo him. They wanted to see something from Wladimir, perhaps a look of fear, but that wasn’t going to happen. Wladimir doesn’t show fear when he’s being booed or trash talked.

When Joshua came out for the weigh-in, he was met with loud cheers from his many boxing fans. Joshua looked over at the fans, seemingly swimming in applause and smiled at them. Joshua then raised his hand into the air in a victory salute to the fans. The fight hasn’t been fought and Joshua is already signaling victory. I think that was a little premature on Joshua’s part, wasn’t it?

There’s going to be 90,000 fans in attendance on Saturday night to see the 27-year-old Joshua and 41-year-old Klitschko get it on at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

“All I have to do is make this fight as easy as possible,” said Joshua to skysports.com. “With boxing, you seem to enjoy it afterwards. With boxing, you seem to enjoy it afterwards. When you’re competing, its tunnel vision,” said Joshua.

If the fight isn’t easy for Joshua, then I hope he doesn’t go to pieces and start crumbling mentally. It’s been 5 years since Joshua fought a good opponent that had some actual talent. Joshua has had a smooth ride as a pro with his promoter Eddie Hearn matching him against 18 easy opponents for him to pick up wins against.

Wladimir would have likely flattened all 18 of Joshua’s opponents if he’d been matched up against the same guys. To be honest, I could see quite a few contenders in the heavyweight division that would have the exact same 18-0 record as Joshua if they’d been matched against the same fighters he’s been put in with. That’s one of the reasons there’s so many unknowns about Joshua. We don’t know how good he is because the last time he fought a good opponent was in the 2012 Olympics when he won a controversial gold medal in beating Roberto Cammarelle. I thought Joshua lost that fight, as well as three of his other fights in the same London Olympics.

Joshua has had it easy as a pro because Hearn has matched him weakly. Wladimir is the best thus far, and he’s 41. If Joshua beats Wladimir, it still won’t tell us much other than he can beat a 41-year-old guy coming off of an 18-month layoff and a loss to Tyson Fury. For the boxing public to really know how good Joshua is, he’ll need to beat Luis Ortiz, Deontay Wilder, Joe Joyce, Alexander Povetkin and Joseph Parker. Is that asking too much of Joshua?

“I just have this feeling – this is my night,” Klitschko said to skysports.com. “It’s a big step for AJ. He hasn’t fought this type of quality of fighter yet. It’s going to be challenging for him – but challenging for me as well.”

It’s kind of ominous that Wladimir is so loose and so confident for this fight. He’s normally not like this. It’s as if Wladimir knows something that Joshua doesn’t know. Wladimir learned something in his 20 rounds of sparring with Joshua in 2014 that he can take advantage of. Wladimir has the boxing skills, jab and foot speed to make Joshua look really bad in this fight.

If Joshua cannot get to Wladimir with his big power shots on Saturday night, then he’ll be in big, big trouble. If the two giant heavyweights get in a jabbing contest, I give it to Wladimir to win every time, because he has a much better jab than Joshua. Part of the reason for that is because Wladimir has better extension because of his flexibility. He’s very wiry in a Tommy Hearns type of way, with unreal punching power. Wladimir is like another Gennady Golovkin with his unreal power. I don’t know what it is about these Eastern European fighters, but they have so much power. Wladimir also has hand speed to go along with his power.