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Home » Exclusive: Bellew expects Usyk to join him as world champion

Exclusive: Bellew expects Usyk to join him as world champion

Poland’s Glowacki (26-0, 16 KO) won the WBO world title back in August 2015 via an eleventh round stoppage win over Germany’s longstanding champ Marco Huck in a fight of the year candidate. The 29-year old has since successfully defended his belt with a unanimous points decision win over Philadelphia’s Steve Cunningham who hit the canvas on four occasions.

Despite being the champion, Glowacki will likely go into a fight with Usyk (9-0, 9 KO) – a 2012 Olympic gold medallist – as a heavy underdog. The impressive Ukrainian southpaw has so far stopped all of his opponents inside the distance and is already highly ranked with all four of the main governing bodies.

A fight between the pair was ordered by the WBO back in April and will likely go to purse bids if no agreement is reached soon. Once it is made, Bellew is confident that Usyk will come out on top.

“Usyk is a brilliant fighter and I expect him to beat Glowacki. I’ve sparred him in the amateurs and he is an exceptional, top level fighter,” Bellew exclusively told World Boxing News.

“Of course we don’t know how good he will be and we don’t know how he will cope over the twelve round distance in a championship level fight, but from what I have seen he is an outstanding fighter.

“However, we have seen it before with former great amateurs like Alexander Alexeev who struggled in the pro ranks against Firat Arslan. If that can happen to Alexeev then it can easily happen to Usyk if he doesn’t get it right.

“Let’s not forget that Glowacki is a very very good, underrated fighter – the man is an animal. Usyk is definitely up against it, but if the Usyk I know goes out and does what he does then he destroys Glowacki and he puts himself up amongst the top dogs in the division – me and Denis Lebedev.”

Matt Horan is lead writer for WBN. Follow on Twitter @mhoran123