BELL: I MUST HAVE A DING-DONG
Without boxing, I’d have 20 road-rage incidents a month
HE has fulfilled his dream of winning a world title and has earned more money than he could have imagined – yet Tony Bellew says he can’t stop boxing.
Bellew’s feisty partner Rachael Roberts, who is not to be messed with, has been urging him to retire since he won the WBC cruiserweight title at his beloved Goodison Park two years ago.
But Bellew jokes he would be up in court for road rage if he quit now because he still has so much aggression left in him.
“I just tell her I need to carry on fighting because I need to want to stop,” he said.
“The worst thing is I stop and I’d probably have 20 roadrage incidents a month! I need to get it out of my system. But she will be the one with the final say.
“Any fella who says, ‘When I get home, I’ll tell her what’s what’ is a liar.
“Nobody tells her, believe me! At some point she will say, ‘Stop now, I’m not asking any more, I’m telling you’.
“When it gets to that stage then I will stop, there will be no arguing. There is more to life than boxing.
“My greatest achievement is what’s in the house – well, they’re in the sun right now – my family.”
Bellew, 35, is enjoying a glittering end to his career after struggling for so long and Saturday’s heavyweight rematch with David Haye at The O2 will add another couple of million to his bank balance. He quipped he can’t retire because Eddie Hearn keeps coming up with enticing offers and it is understood the promoter plans to take the Liverpudlian to America on the back of his success in the Rocky spin-off Creed.
“I’ve been fighting for 20 years and I don’t know where it’s leading me,” he said. “Eddie is going to keep coming to me with offers.
“He’s got big news just after the fight in America and I’m sure my name will come into that because I’ve got a profile in America.”
Bellew appears to revel in the limelight, yet he claims it is all an act to sell himself and his fights. He says he just wants to see his family again and they have become even more important to him since Rachael’s brother, Ashley, was killed in an accident on holiday in Mexico last summer.
“I know you all think Bellew loves the media, but I can’t stand it,” he said.
“I don’t know whether I’m getting old or soft or whether it was last August with what happened with my family, but family is all that matters.
“This circus will go away and on Sunday nobody will want to know me. I’m Saturday’s entertainment and once that’s over, it’s on to the next one.”