Below are quotes from current WBC Cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew. David Haye and Tony Bellew will meet in a heavyweight grudge match this Saturday from the 02 Arena in London.
The fight card can be seen LIVE in the United States on AWE-A Wealth of Entertainment and for fans who want to see the fight that do not have AWE, they can watch the fight on the AWE channel on www.klowdtv.com beginning at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT
“I unsettle him and he hates it because I’m unpredictable,” said Bellew. “I don’t know what I am going to do. I know one thing though – there’s only one World champion here and that’s me.
“He has to accept that I can hurt him. I said to B.J. and the same to everyone. At some stage, he’s going to hit the floor and I hope he wants it as much as me. With 10oz gloves on anything can happen.
“He could make Cruiserweight. He knows it. Whatever weight I get in the ring is fine, he’s a big Cruiserweight. It wouldn’t have happened at Cruiserweight as I’d have to give into more demands – I thought I was fighting Mariah, he’s got that many diva demands.
“He wanted to retire at 30, now look at him. He’s partying in Miami, he doesn’t want it, he’s back for the money. He doesn’t care about me; he thinks he’s going to walk in there and blow me away. I’ve had 30 odd fights and only one genuine loss, Adonis Stevenson, and he’s elite. I was poor against B.J. but it’s got me the fight I want.”
“I am going in with a fighter that is very fast, very powerful, but I think that’s just for four rounds,” said Bellew. “He’s an elite level fighter, but not the one that was able to be that quick and explosive over a fair distance. He’s a front-runner, but a brilliant front-runner. It’s like me saying he’s a one-trick pony, but it’s a hell of a trick. That right hand is a hell of a dig and if he lands on anyone early in a fight, it doesn’t matter if you are Heavyweight or Cruiserweight, you are going to sleep. It’s when his timeframe in fights passes, that’s when I feel he’s there for the taking – but it’s only words now, I must prove it tonight.
“He was conning the British public with those two fighters. His last guy was so bad he had a draw with the bag in the gym. He’s a world class fighter, he’s the best athlete besides Joshua in the Heavyweight division. Is he the best fighter? No, but he’s a great athlete.
If this was a race he’d win, bench press competition he’d win, but it’s a fight.
“Tell me a top Heavyweight he’s beat? He beat a top Cruiserweight in Jean Marc Mormeck in 2007 but I’m the best Cruiserweight in the world right now so all he is doing is fighting the best in the world at his old weight.
“It makes me laugh that people think he’s going to win this easy, because I’ve always had that. People thought Makabu was going to beat me easy – to be honest, he got close in that first round, but I got up and I won. I’ve been written off many times, this is no different to any other fight, don’t let anyone fool you.
“He’s got two arms and two legs, same as anyone else. The scale from the media may be different and the public attention might be bigger, there’s a lot of outside focus on the fight, but the same rules apply in this fight as to any other.
“There are only three things that matter to me in a fight. Number one – get home safe to the wife and kids. Number two – win at all costs. Number three – nothing else matters. Doubters, critics, well-wishers, none of it matters other than those three things.
“The pressure of fighting at Goodison Park was far more stressful than this. I had been going there since I was eight years old, I’d built a dream up of fighting there since I was a kid and I did it.
“It was so hard to walk into that stadium and know that there was a ring there for me to fight for the WBC World title – I ask any football fan to imagine what that would be like. Then add to that my son being there at the only fight he’ll ever be at.
“I was expected to lose that night but a lot of people wanted me to win. The bookies thought I would lose but the will of the people wanting me to win and the need for me to win was far greater than people can imagine – a whole other level.”
“Our sport has been through enough drama and heartache recently,” said Bellew. “We had the tragic death of Mike Towell, Nick Blackwell nearly dying, Eduard Gutenechkt going into a coma – and he says the stuff he says.
“I was at the fight when Callum Smith KO’d Luke Blackledge working for BBC radio, and it was a bad one, he hit him flush and he slammed against the canvas. Luke was out cold and I was praying that he got up because Callum is a devastating puncher.
“I looked over where David was working for Sky Sports, he caught my eye, and mouthed ‘you’re going to end up like that’. At that moment, Luke wasn’t even awake. I just said to him ‘you are a scumbag, that boy is on the floor unconscious and you are saying that?’
“I want to beat David Haye but I don’t want to hurt him, I just want him to be stopped by the ref or be down for ten seconds. The things he says are so out of place, it’s wrong. I don’t want to hurt anyone, I’m a professional athlete, even though I don’t look like one, and I just want to win – but talks of stretchers is wrong, and in the Gloves Are Off he crossed the line.
“I said that I can’t wait for it to be over and that I want to get back to the family because I am content with the life I have. His response to that was ‘you’re going to hospital’. I asked him to come again, and when he repeated it we had to stop filming.
“That’s the closest to I’ve come to really wanting to give it to someone in boxing but not in the ring. I hope he goes home safe after the fight and does what he wants to do.
“I know what my priorities are, what’s important to me. I don’t think he does, I think he lives in a dream world, hanging out in Miami with celebrities over Christmas. I woke up on Christmas Day with my three beautiful kids, the only people that really rely on me in this world, the only ones that need me – so every spare minute I spend with them and every penny this horrible game makes me is going on their future.
“He came to Liverpool for the press conference and cause the controversy to drum up the pay-per-view and get more buys. If you’ve spent £20m you want to make another £20m as quickly as possible. For the last five or six years I’ve been doing fight weeks and promos for big shows, World title shows, Box Office shows and big build ups.
“He’s been hitting every nightclub in Miami and sunning himself. This is a man who said to the world he was going to retire at 30, and was financially secure enough to do it. Why is he back? He couldn’t give up the limelight, it killed him. He hated not being part of the celebrity circuit, the nightclubs, the women – and he’s lost everything because he couldn’t give it up.
“I can’t wait to give it up. When I’m done, and I’m not far from that point – there’s a few things I’d like to achieve, bonus levels in the game, but as far as my goals go, I’ve completed the game. I’ve done everything I set out to do. I’ve won. Beaten it.
“I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’m just focused on getting home. I don’t rest on my laurels. People have asked if I can get up for a fight after Goodison, after Flores – I will be up for it for every single fight because the same three rules apply. That’s why I drive myself in the gym and I’m dedicated, turn up day in, day out and get it done.”
“I am the first to credit people when they do something great and I’ve always said Shane McGuigan is a good coach,” said Bellew.
“McGuigan and Carl Frampton are made for each other because they’ve been together from the start and they’ve created a style and developed it so well.
“When it comes to someone like Haye, him and Adam Booth made and created a style together. They were made for each other and perfected that fantastic style to the very limit.
“They had a tried, tested and proven way of training and even I can’t knock it because it worked throughout his career. It seems that now he’s no longer training with Adam Booth, he is the boss.
“Someone like Shane might be a little bit in awe with someone like Haye, a former undisputed cruiserweight world champion of the world, former heavyweight champion of the world, a big celebrity, so it’s not like with Frampton, when they were both learning on the job.
“He is allowing David Haye to do what he wants and at the end of the day if this wasn’t the case, why has Haye been in Miami with the fight six weeks away while his coach is in Las Vegas.
“David doesn’t respect his coach. My coach went to Texas to prepare Jamie McDonnell’s first fight with Tomoki Kameda and my fight was scheduled 11 weeks after that.
“I didn’t have to go out to Texas but once I’d hit the 12-week cycle, I’m strictly in camp. I took myself to Texas and trained every single day, and why isn’t Haye doing that?
“McGuigan said in the media, him training Haye for five weeks is enough. So be it, but he’s treating him differently to all his other fighters.
“When I am in camp, Dave has full responsibility, he says when I come and go, what I do and don’t do and between him and my fitness coach they work out a plan.
“Because it’s Tony Bellew and he thinks it’s a walk in the park and it’s OK to stay in Miami and party. While he’s been posing in the sun I am working my bits off in the cold and the dark.
“I am going in with a man who was absolutely fantastic. When he was in his prime, an immense athlete – but the tank is very, very low and it does not last very long.
“When the gas runs out, the big fat Scouser is going to steam through him.”
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Coming soon:
April 15: Ricky Burns vs Julius Indongo