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Showtime’s Saturday night broadcast of the IBF cruiserweight battle between titleholder O’Neil “Give ’em Hell” Bell and challenger Sebastian Rothmann looks to be a sure fire action fight that could very well remold the landscape of the cruiserweight division. Bell hasn’t lost a bout in over seven years but will be facing a tough, committed South African in the form of former IBO belt-holder Sebastian Rothmann. Only two men have been able to stand up to the heavy-handed lethality that Bell brings to the table and when that has happened the Atlanta man was fortunate to pull out the victory. Can Rothmann walk through the hail of punishment that Bell is sure to provide? You’ll have to watch the fight to know the answer to that question but we’ll examine the chances of that happening and more in this preview.
O’Neil Bell’s career started just fine in 1998, but in his second professional fight the Georgian lost by knockout in the fourth by one Mohamed Benguesmia. Despite the indignity of the knockout loss, it was no sin as the Algerian is still around with a 33-2-2 (28) mark. Two months later Bell was back on the horse and barnstormed all over the American south, racking up fifteen straight wins and picking up the NABF belt in the process.
Bell’s big break came in September 2001 when he was to defend his crown against former IBF Champion “King” Arthur Williams. Despite being thirty-six-years-of age, Williams had only lost twice in his last fifteen bouts and that had been to Chris Byrd and Vassiliy Jirov. It was a titanic see saw battle but in the end Bell’s power proved to be the difference as Williams was stopped in the eleventh round.
Four fights later Bell and Williams tangled again and this time “King” Arthur was stopped in the ninth with “Give ’em Hell” adding the USBA title to his trophy chest. In May of 2003, Bell defended his belts and won an IBF title eliminator by stopping Kelvin “Koncrete” Davis in the eleventh round of what had been a close contest. Seven months later former light heavyweight contender Derrick Harmon fell in the eighth before ex-IBO/NABO strap-holder Ezra Sellers suffered the same fate within two rounds during an additional IBF eliminator.
Bell’s date with destiny followed in May of this year when he went to grips with seasoned Canadian veteran Dale “Cowboy” Brown in Hollywood, Florida. At stake was the full IBF title and the two men fought with bad intentions. Brown proved to be the better boxer as Bell ran out of gas and slipped into just looking for one punch in the latter stages of the bout. Despite seeming to carry the fight in the eyes of those in attendance by more than a few rounds, instead of declaring Brown the winner, the judges awarded Bell a fairly wide unanimous decision to run his record to 24-1-1(22).
The American champion will need better conditioning against Rothmann, 18-3-2 (12), an Israeli who makes his home in South Africa. The thirty-one-year-old is coming off a remarkable contest in which he dropped and then scored a decision over Anton Nel, the South African heavyweight champion, this past February. Previously, Rothmann had been unlucky in his last two outings, dropping a razor thin decision to the hot Philadelphia prospect Steve Cunningham and losing his IBO crown by stoppage to former WBO Champion Carl “The Cat” Thompson.
The Thompson fight in particular was a vicious war in which both men visited the canvas, Thompson in the fourth and Rothmann in the fifth. In the ninth frame, Rothmann was dishing out a severe beating and had his foe a punch away from defeat. As the South African went into deliver the knockout, the thirty-nine-year-old Thompson landed first with a crushing right hand that put Rothmann down and essentially ended the fight. It was the first defeat suffered by the IBO titlist in nineteen bouts, since a decision loss in his debut seven years before. It was also Rothmann’s only career stoppage to date.
Therein lays the key to this bout: Rothmann’s chin. Bell’s most difficult fights were against Dale Brown, Arthur Williams, Kelvin Davis and Jason Robinson. Davis and Williams appeared to be winning their struggles against Bell before their luck ran out, each in the eleventh round. Robinson, a former martial arts champion, traded knockdowns with Bell but largely proved able to absorb everything thrown his way and lost a narrow unanimous decision to the Atlanta native. Brown not only took Bell’s best but also rocked his fellow combatant several times before losing the highly controversial decision.
Rothmann has stopped some of the best cruiserweights in Britain and won a decision against the durable master centurion of Argentina, Jorge Castro, but is stepping up considerably on the degree of difficulty scale against Bell. Still, Dale Brown provided the blueprint to beat “Give ’em Hell” and if Rothmann can maintain a high work rate behind the jab for all twelve rounds and take Bell’s power, then he has the chance for an upset. If he cannot dictate the pace or worse, take what the champion dishes out, then Rothmann will be just another victim stopped by O’Neil Bell on his way towards a unification match-up with France’s cruiserweight divisional ruler Jean Marc Mormeck.
Contact Curtis McCormick at thomaspointrd@aol.com
