Tony Bellew Blew It

With a pre-fight video building him as a monster, Clev in the studio commenting, it was clear this was the start of the tear long big push for Clev Vs Bellew.

Get Ajisafe out of the way, another body on the Smith card, then a tough fight in December.

A fewprobls with that.

-Tony, despite telling us otherwise, clearly only prepared to blow Ajisafe away.

-Little punch variety, telegraphed shots, this is a big problem

-Struggled with movement, walked onto shots he didn't need to

-Complained to the referee, and got frustrated. He knew what Ajisafe was about going in, and was clearly stronger at the beginning, throwing Ajisafe down a few times. As the fight progressed Bellew allowed himself to get toed up, and done Ajisafes job for him, smothering his own work in the search for the K.O.

-Bellew doesn't wait to throw, he just throws. The result is a lack of accuracy, and him hitting gloves/thin air.

However, the good things, though there are few IMO

-Bellew clearly has big power. Even though he didn't land very cleanly, he staggered Ajisafe quote a few times, in a way that made his fall backwards against the ropes. Still, he wasn't walking Ajisafe onto shots, setting anything up or delisting his puches with any crispness. Strong or not, this does not work at this level, Tony needs to make some adjustments if he wants to progress.

-Bellew at least has an idea or how to slip and roll with punches. Still, wasn't maximising the torque he could het and banging Ajisafe, although to his credit, Ajisafe was slippery.

-Bellew knew it was a major disappointment. Plain to see, he knows improvements need to be made.

In short, Sky may be reluctant to push him now, and Frank ****** might not fast track him like he looked to be doing (starting tonight)

Tony is a top lad, an no doubt he will be even more critical of hi
self. It was good for him to get some rounds in, he now has a lot to look at so he can gauge where he's going wrong. But he seems to be liable to mark up IMO, and I wasn't as impressed with his arsenal of punches as I thought I might be.

Tony looked fairly one dimensional tonight, and I doubt he'll be ready to fight on the Smith undercard now.

Jumping off the bandwagon??? **** NO!!! Just feel deflated.

Tony and Arnie need to make big adjustments IMO. Every fighter has a slippery fight like this early on, and Ajisafe impressed as well, let's not take anything away from him, but Tony did what he said he wouldn't do on numerous occassions, he got right hand happy and predictable, and wasn't setting anything up. He was sat on his arse but recovered well, but didn't really get back into his stride after that. Won the rounds, and was certainly not gun-shy or dissuaded, but definitely lost focus IMO.

No doubt a lot of people will now write him off as they've been looking for reasons to bring him down. This should be what makes Tony Bellew even more determined to succeed, a fight with Clev is now further away than ever IMO.

And 115-114 was ridiculous!

 

When did I rip Fury?

 

No doubt he will learn.

But it will be over a year or two IMO. I await to see Tony, always articulate and a student of the game, respond to the criticisms IN THE RING!!!

He can iron these problems out. I do think he looks under developed around the neck though, good chin or not he just doesn't look that suited to 175lbs physcially.

The Clev-Bellew build-up will not happen now IMO. Which is a real shame, Ajisafe was a bad choice of opponent.

But as I always say: if you can't beat the likes of........







(Or in this case, impressively beat the likes of :good)

 

I've got to say, Ajisafe looked less crude than McIntosh, and fought well late into the fight.

Though that may be down to the way Tony was fighting.