Bold Bellew aims to bow out in glory
TONY Bellew insists there will be no more Bomber runs after the toughest fight of his life and to prove it he has written the epitaph to his own boxing career.
‘This is how I want to be remembered,’ says Bellew as he girds himself to challenge the formidable undisputed world cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in the Manchester Arena tonight.
‘This Is A Man Who Would Fight Anyone.’ Then he promised to ‘reveal at the end of the fight’ the over-riding reason why his decision to retire is irreversible.
‘The last secret,’ says Bellew, who has already had to overcome his wife’s pleading for him not to enter the ring this one final time.
‘We were enjoying our honeymoon when the call came,’ he says. ‘I realised how brutal this would be against Usyk. I said I was trying to work out in my head the balance between believing that I can go out in glory but knowing also how much of myself I could lose. How much damage I would have to suffer to beat him.
‘Rachael was very much against. I asked why. She said because she kept hearing me say I would have to go through hell to win.
‘In the end, I told her I couldn’t walk away not knowing if I could win the first fight for an undisputed world title to take place in Britain. Not knowing if I could sign off by proving myself the best cruiserweight in the world by beating the superstar.
‘Rachael knows it’s not for the money. I’ve made plenty of that. It’s not for fame. I look forward to living a normal life. It’s for history but also for my peace of mind.’
His 31-year-old Ukrainian opponent is the first cruiserweight ever to hold all four major world titles — WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO — to which he has also added The Ring magazine belt. All in only 15 fights since turning professional. He already ranks among the top five pound-for-pound boxers.
Bellew says: ‘Oleksandr is a magnificent fighter. Tremendous. Brilliant. So good that for the first time in my life, I could accept losing if I did lose. I have it deep inside to take the hurt and then put his lights out in the blink of an eye.’
Will Usyk be drawn in? Maybe not. He says: ‘War? I will do what I usually do. My boxing.’
Bellew doubts it: ‘He knows we both have a screw loose.’
For this Everton fan, there is then the prospect of ‘handing over to Callum Smith and the rest of the next generation the burden of carrying boxing in Liverpool, which has been on the shoulders of this fat Scouser for ten years’.
The process begins this weekend. ‘Saturday night war. Sunday celebrate. Monday morning wake up for the first time not thinking about who’s next,’ says Bellew.
Will he do that as the undisputed world cruiserweight, retired? A big ask. But no one can take away Bellew’s pride of being a man who would fight anyone. Usyk v Bellew is live tonight on Sky Sports Box Office.