Tyson Fury: Tony Bellew couldn’t beat me with both hands tied behind my back

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury wasn’t too impressed with Tony Bellew’s 5th round knockout win over a shot to bits David Haye last Saturday night, and he’s now saying that he would beat the former WBC cruiserweight champion with both hands tied behind his back.

Bellew (30-2-1, 20 KOs) is happy to hear stuff like that, because he says he wants to fight Fury and he’s one of the 4 fighters that he would be willing to face to keep his career alive. Bellew is undecided right now whether to continue fighting after beating David Haye for the second time by knockout.

Like a lot of fighters, Bellew is now spoiled and only wants the big money fights instead of ones that prove that he’s the among the best at heavyweight or cruiserweight. Bellew already moved out of the cruiserweight division last year rather than stay around to defend his WBC title against his mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis.

Bellew has named these four fighters as viable options for him to fight if he’s to continue his career:

• Tyson Fury

• Andre Ward

• Oleksandr Usyk

• Murat Gassiev

Fury, 29, must be seen as being at the top of the list of candidates for Bellew’s next fight. However, Bellew will probably have to sit for a while before he gets the fight because Fury has a comeback fight next month on June 9 against a still to be determined opponent at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Fury will need to look good in that fight for him to take on Bellew in his second fight of his comeback.

“On a serious note, how long do you think it would take me to walk through Tony Bellew without defending myself?” Fury said on his Instagram. “I don’t think he could beat me with both my hands behind my back. He would get tired after five or six punches. He is an old dosser; all he is good for is to be my opponent. If you’re out there Tony, after I knock you out in one round, I’ll give you a job cleaning my shoes.”

Fury v. Bellew is just a money fight. It’s not the best vs. the best. It’s just a money match. I doubt that Bellew really cares whether he loses to Fury, because it’ll give him a big payday and it’ll help feather his nest. If Bellew really wanted to prove himself as the best, he wouldn’t be talking about wanting to fight Fury or the retired former light heavyweight champion Andre Ward.

The size different between the 6’2” Bellew and 6’9” Fury would be more than enough for Tyson to win the fight with ease. Bellew’s best weapon is his left hook, and he’s only dangerous when he throws at medium to close range. The left hook is useless when Bellew’s opponents are on the outside. Bellew doesn’t have a powerful right hand that he throws from long range. As such, Fury will slap Bellew around for 12 boring rounds. I suspect the fight will happen, but it be a sick farce and just a money fight just like the Bellew vs. Haye fight. The fans didn’t see the best heavyweights in the division with those two. It was more of a celebrity match between two guys that would likely be blasted to smithereens by even the fringe contenders in the heavyweight division like Adam Kownacki, Carlos Takam, Bryant Jennings and Johann Duhaupas.

Fury says he felt sorry for 37-year-old David Haye in watching him get knocked out by Bellew.

“I felt sorry for him,” Fury said about Haye. “After all the s*** that we have been through, I felt sorry for him. But If Bellew wants knocking spark out he can come to me. One round.”

There’s only a couple of huge money fights for Fury against UK fighters, and Bellew and IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua are the two. Fury won’t get a lot of money fighting Dillian Whyte. In the future guys like Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce might be options for big paydays for Fury if he’s still relevant career-wise. For now, Bellew is the lowest hanging fruit for Fury to pick for an easy money fight against a British heavyweight that the boxing public cares about in the UK. The boxing public don’t seem to mind that Bellew ducked the best cruiserweights in fleeing from the division when he was on the verge of being ordered by the World Boxing Council to defend his title against Mairis Briedis. The fans don’t care that Bellew isn’t the second, third or even the 10th best heavyweight in the division. The UK fans just want to see Bellew fight, and they would obviously lap up a fight between him and Fury.

Fury might want to pull the trigger on a Bellew fight in his second fight of his comeback if he destroys his June 9th opponent in style. Fury says he wants to beat former heavyweight world champion Joe Louis’ record for title defenses with making a lot of bum of the month defenses. The way for Fury to break the record is to win a world title as soon as possible and fight as often as possible. Bellew could give Fury practice with his bum of the month training. The thing is, Fury is going to need to take the fight with Bellew soon, very soon, because his win over Haye last Saturday seems to have planted some idea into his head about him being capable of beating good fighters instead of injured and over-the-hill fighters. Bellew was doing a lot of crowing after his win over Haye. Bellew wants Oleksandr Usyk, Gassiev, Ward or Fury. If Fury doesn’t fight Bellew now, he might turn around and have his promoter Eddie Hearn line him up for a fight with one of those three fighters. Bellew will not beat any of those guys, I’m afraid. Once Bellew loses to one of them, he’ll be useless to Fury. That’s why Fury needs to fight Bellew soon before he gets whipped by one of the big four that he’s picked out for his target list.

“It will take something absolutely ridiculous to make me do it again,” Bellew said to Sky Sports News. “I like the Tyson Fury fight. I do think I can knock Fury out. I just know I can beat Andre Ward…David Haye…was supposed to knock me out and it didn’t work out…I bullied him. I physically manhandled him,” Bellew said.

See what I mean about Bellew having delusions of grandeur after his win over a shot to bits Haye? That win over Haye has planted some serious ideas into Bellew’s head. He thinks he can beat fighters that aren’t over-the-hill now, and he’s heading for a real beat down once he gets his wish to fight Fury, Ward or the winner of the Usky-Gassiev fight.