Deontay Wilder could fight Oleksandr Usyk for new WBC ‘super-cruiserweight’ title at 220lbs weight class
DEONTAY WILDER could fight Oleksandr Usyk for a new WBC super-cruiserweight belt, according to Tony Bellew. The Liverpool born former cruiserweight champ has been put in charge of a WBC committee tasked with exploring the potential new weight class. And the 37-year-old reckons Usyk and the Bronze Bomber would be a perfect match. At the […]
DEONTAY WILDER could fight Oleksandr Usyk for a new WBC super-cruiserweight belt, according to Tony Bellew.
The Liverpool born former cruiserweight champ has been put in charge of a WBC committee tasked with exploring the potential new weight class.
And the 37-year-old reckons Usyk and the Bronze Bomber would be a perfect match.
At the WBC convention last month Bellew charged with leading an investigation into Don Majeski’s proposal to form a new weight class between cruiserweight and heavyweight.
As things stand, the top three divisions are light-heavyweight (175lbs), cruiserweight (200lbs) and heavyweight (200lbs+).
Bellew competed in all three but reckons there is room for one more.
He told talkSPORT Fight Night: “I actually like the divisions going from 175lbs up to 190lbs [instead of 200lbs].
“That will make it a bit better for the guys who are struggling at light-heavyweight, but are not monster cruiserweights.
“Then, if I had my way, I would go from 190lbs to 220lbs. You’re looking at the ‘small heavyweights’.
“I would’ve fallen into that category quite comfortably, Usyk falls into that category quite comfortably.
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“Wilder falls into that category quite comfortably, David Haye falls into that category quite comfortably.
“This weight class we’re looking to bring in is the perfect thing and if I had complete control of something like this, the first match-up I would look to do would be Deontay Wilder vs Oleksandr Usyk for the belt.
“It’s an amazing fight, the division would be relevant immediately with a fight of that magnitude.”
Bellew added: “I am a fighter who fought obviously at light-heavyweight.
“I boiled down to that weight category and then jumped up immediately and went to cruiserweight.
“I’ve done it, so I understand how tough the weight jump is.
“The difference in all the other weight categories is minimal – 4lbs, 3lbs, sometimes 6lbs.
“The weight jump from light-heavyweight to cruiserweight is from 175lbs to 200lbs – that’s 25lbs.
“That’s just too much, I get what Majeski’s saying because in the current game at heavyweight the big boys are too big and the smaller heavyweights are not able to compete with the bigger boys.
“As great as some of them are – the likes of Usyk – it’s looked at now that he’s not going to be able to compete with the monsters.
“Not because of his boxing ability, purely because of his size.”
The idea of a new weight class was raised by the WBC before with super-heavyweight being bandied about,
But fans slammed the idea insisting the iconic heavyweight division must remain boxing’s greatest prize.
Bellew agreed: “You can’t mess around, you can’t have a ‘super-heavyweight’ in boxing.
“There’s one heavyweight division, that’s all there should ever be, you can’t go messing around with the names of them.
“People say, ‘Well, what would you call it?’
“I would say you go to cruiserweight [at 190lbs] and maybe ‘super-cruiserweight’ [at 220lbs].
“Something of that ilk. You can’t ever have a ‘super-heavyweight’ division, it’s not reasonable, it’s ridiculous.”