Hearn Discusses The Paths Of Bellew and Cleverly, Calls Chilemba A ‘Tough Fight’

On March 30^th Liverpudlian light-heavyweight, Tony Bellew will look to take the final step towards a second world title tilt when he faces Isaac Chilemba in a final eliminator to be the mandatory challenger to the WBC crown.

ThaBoxingVoice caught up with the 30-year-old’s promoter, Eddie Hearn.

“Don’t overlook Tony Bellew, who lost a very tight decision to [Nathan] Cleverly, some say a disputed decision. He beat Edison Miranda recently, then [Roberto] Bolonti. He will fight Isaac Chilemba in a WBC final eliminator on March 30^th and that’s for the winner of [Chad] Dawson v [Jean] Pascal, so there’s a lot happening.”

Pascal hasn’t fought a notable fight since last May, when he lost his crown to Bernard Hopkins. He suffered an injury that cancelled a bout between him and IBF Champion Tavoris Cloud. Then in his last fight this past December, he suffered a shoulder injury that put his bout with Dawson in question. The bout is set for May 25.

Dawson is coming off a loss when he went down in weight to challenge the super middleweight champion of the world in Andre Ward. Dawson, now back to light heavyweight, has also switched trainers as he prepares for a rematch with Pascal. Since the bout is taking place in May, the chances for Bellew to fight either man will be sometime in late 2013.

Hearn also discussed the contrasting fortunes of Cleverly and Bellew since that British fight of the year candidate in 2011.

“Cleverly is doing his own thing. Cleverly has fought Tommy Karpency and Shawn Hawk, who aren’t the most inspiring opponents. Again, I don’t suppose that’s his decision to fight those guys but he’s in a real bad spot now where he’s been given two back-to-back mandatory’s. One is Robin Krasniqi, who no-one has ever really heard of and the other one is Jurgen Braehmer; which is a bit of a more interesting fight but again two fights that commercially mean nothing to anyone, so he’s in a bad spot. Now you’ve got Bellew, who’s in a final eliminator against Chilemba who’s no bum by the way, that’s a tough fight.”