Tony Bellew One of Britain’s Greatest Ever

Last weekend Tony Bellew walked to the ring for the final time, unfortunately his career didn’t have the fairytale ending we were all hoping for. Nevertheless he has had a quite remarkable career so I thought it was only right to take a look back at the highs and the lows.

He made his professional debut on the 6th October 2007 in Nottingham as a Cruiserweight when he took on Jamie Ambler a fight he won with a 2nd round knockout. He then moved down to Light Heavyweight. He then went on an 11 fight winning streak before getting his opportunity to fight for his first professional title.

On the 12th March 2010 he stepped into the ring with Atoli More for the vacant Commonwealth title. In this fight Tony showed why he’s called “The Bomber” as from the opening bell he got straight down to work, midway through the opening round he thought he’d scored a knockdown only to have it ruled a slip by the referee. However Bellew continued to land big shots in the corner giving the referee no choice but to stop the fight. He made one defence of his title before those two epic fights with Ovill McKenzie.

On the 11th December 2010 these two rivals went to war for the first time and what a fight it was. With Bellew getting knocked down in the opening round off a right hand to his head, he was then put down again in the 2nd this time with a right hand to the jaw. It looked like it was going to be a long night for Bellew but then things went from bad to worst in the 5th round a clash of heads caused a cut to his head. However Bellew showed his hart battle in back in the second half of the fight until eventually scoring the stoppage in the 8th round of a true boxing classic.

Their first fight was that good that on the 16th July 2011 they did it again, but this time with the vacant British title on the line as well as Bellew’s Commonwealth belt. The rematch wasn’t as good as their first fight with Bellew dominating from start to finish it looked like McKenzie had no answers, but to his credit he hung in there for the full 12 rounds that saw Bellew win a wide unanimous decision. 118-111 on two of the judges’ cards and 119-110 on the other. Shortly after this fight Bellew decided to give up his Commonwealth title for a chance to fight then world champion and rival Nathan Cleverly.

On the 15th October 2011 he went to war with Nathan Cleverly for the WBO world title. This was a very close fight throughout with the fight going one way then the other before Cleverly won a much disputed split decision 117-112, 116-113 and 114-114 on the judges’ cards. This was Tony Bellew’s first loss as a professional.

After the loss to Cleverly he went back to the drawing board defending his British title with a 5th round knockout victory over Danny McIntosh. Then in his very next fight he put himself back in the title picture winning the WBC International Sliver title with a 9th round knockout of Edison Miranda. He followed that up by winning the WBC Sliver title with a unanimous decision victory over Roberto Feliciano Bolonti. Then came the fights with Isaac Chilemba.

On the 30th March 2013 Bellew made his first defence of his WBC Sliver title against Isaac Chilemba this was also a final eliminator for the WBC world title. This was a very close fight however throughout the fight although both men were having success the better quality work was coming from Bellew. However the judges saw it differently scoring the fight a split decision draw 112-116 (Chilemba) 114-114 and 116-115 (Bellew), I personally scored the fight 116-113 to Bellew.

Due to the amount of controversy surrounding their first fight an immediate rematch was made, so on 25th April 2013 on the undercard of Froch V Kessler 2 the pair went toe to toe again. This time Bellew put on a boxing masterclass to leave the result in no doubt winning a wide unanimous decision 116-112, 117-112 and 116-112 to become the mandatory challenger for the WBC title.

After two years of fighting his way back into a world title shot on the 30th November 2013 he traveled out to Canada to take on Adonis Stevenson for the WBC title. Now I hate to say this but for the whole fight Bellew was outclassed until the inevitable happened in the 6th round when he was put on the canvas he beat the count but Stevenson continued the onslaught giving the referee no choice but to step in and stop the fight.

After another loss in a world title fight many people were starting to wonder would he ever win a world title. He made the decision to move to Cruiserweight because he said that he was starting to struggle to make weight at Light Heavyweight.

On the 15th March 2014 Tony Bellew returned to the ring as a Cruiserweight to take on Valery Brudov a fight he won with a knockout in the final round but he made it hard work for himself , but with that win he became WBO International champion. In his next fight he took on Julio Cesar Dos Santos a fight he won in style with a 5th round knockout. At this point everyone is talking about the possibility of a rematch between Tony Bellew and Nathan Cleverly.

On the 22nd November 2014 after months of build up Bellew and Cleverly went to war again and what a fight it was. Cleverly had the better of the early rounds. However going into the second half of the fight Cleverly looked out of gas and out of ideas it went the distance with the judges scoring it 115-113 (Bellew), 116-112 (Bellew) and 114-115 (Cleverly). So now it’s one win each the only shame is we never got to see the 3rd fight.

Two fights after beating Cleverly in their rematch he got the opportunity to fight for the European title on the undercard of Joshua V Whyte. On the 12th December 2015 he took on Mateusz Masternak. This was a very close fight with both men having success however throughout the fight Bellew was landing the better quality shots, it was a hard 12 rounds with Bellew winning a unanimous decision 115-112,115-112 and 115-113 on the judges’ cards.

Winning the European title help to set up his dream fight, a fight for the WBC Cruiserweight title at the home of his Beloved Everton Goodison Park. The year before he’d fought for a world title at Goodison Park but that was in the movie Creed, now it was time to do it for real. On the 29th April 2016 he took on Iiunga Makabu. However his dream nearly became a nightmare when he was put on the canvas in the opening round, but he came back well controlling the 2nd round before finishing the fight in the 3rd to finally become a world champion.

Some people thought he would call it a day then but he went on to defend his title against BJ Flores a fight he won with a 3rd round knockout after dropping Flores twice in the 2nd round and once again in the 3rd.

Then came one of the biggest shocks in boxing the news that Bellew was going to step up to Heavyweight to take on David Haye.

After months of bad blood in the build up on the 4th March 2017 the pair went to war it was a fairly even fight up until the 5th round when Haye Injured his Achilles’ tendon so he could hardly stand. Haye was in survival mode from then on just looking for that one big punch but it didn’t come. Until the 11th round when Bellew landed a huge shot which put Haye through the ropes and ended the fight with Bellew shocking the world.

After the fight with Haye many people thought he would hang up the gloves, at the same time many people both in boxing and on social media were saying that Bellew only beat Haye because of his injury.

So the rematch was made on the 5th April 2018 the pair went to war again and this time Bellew left the result in no doubt dropping Haye twice in the 3rd round and once in the 5th ending the fight with Haye pinned on the ropes giving Howard Foster no choice but to step in and stop the fight

After the fight Bellew said he was done but then after Oleksandr Usyk won the World Boxing Super Series he called out Bellew so then Saturday’s huge fight was made. Bellew said in the build up to this fight that no matter what happens he’s hanging up the gloves.

This past Saturday 10th November 2018 the Z Cars theme tune rang around The Manchester Arena for the final time. Bellew started the fight really well winning the opening rounds and out boxing Usyk but going into the second half of the fight you could see Usyk was growing in confidence then in the 8th round Usyk timed the perfect shot to wipe out Bellew, and that was the end of the fight and with it the end of Tony Bellew’s career.

Tony Bellew finishes his career with a remarkable record of 30-3-1 with 20 knockouts. I wish him well for the future, I’m sure he will go down as one of Britain’s greatest ever boxers. Please comment below and let me know your thoughts on a quite unbelievable career.