Bellew Blasts McKenzie, Rips Cleverly, Talks New Team

By Terence Dooley

Tony Bellew hit the deck hard and heavily during the second round of his December 11th Commonwealth light-heavyweight title showdown with Ovill McKenzie, a huge right hand depositing the former trainee accountant face first onto the canvas, his second knockdown of the night.  Bellew beat the count, swore at himself and then raged his way back into the fight before pulling out an eighth round TKO win.

The ending, though, was marred by controversy.  McKenzie, 18-10 (7 early), protested long and hard at the stoppage.  However, the two men had produced a domestic FOTY candidate, fought their hearts out and surely shared a lot of post-fight respect. 

Apparently not, Ovill sparked the feud back into life by wondering aloud if his opponent’s remarkable fight back had been inspired by the use of illegal substances.  Undeterred by the furor, Ovill suggested that drugs could be behind Tony’s highly charged persona.  Bellew furiously refuted the claims and is further incensed by the lack of an apology.

“No, he hasn’t retracted the statements,” blasted Bellew.  “I passed a drugs test on the night of the fight, he has made a clown of himself.  He is going to be made to pay for those accusations. 

“I didn’t take it personally but it is disgusting that he dragged the sport I love and that is loved across the world through the gutter.  No one in boxing condones the use of drugs.  All of a sudden the sport is across the back pages of the Echo [Liverpool’s regional newspaper] for the wrong reasons.  It is not a nice thing.”

Adding, “He insulted me in one way but it is also a compliment, a testament to my conditioning for the first fight and the work I do in the gym.  It is just sad that he could do this.”

McKenzie will weather the storm, his harsh words no doubt part of an attempt to provoke Bellew into a reckless early rounds assault.  “He is definitely trying to get into my head, to goad me into a fight because that is the only chance he’s got,” concurred Bellew.

“I won’t play that game.  If he comes out at his best then he’ll only be able to keep it going for one round.  He is just not good enough to beat me.  I’ll show that on Saturday night.

“You can’t go into the water without getting wet but the shots I got caught with in the first fight were down to errors that I shouldn’t have been making.  I should have picked up on it sooner.  You make mistakes and then learn from them.

“I am better than Ovill McKenzie, I beat him with only fifty percent of what I’ve got.  If I come out with everything I’ve got you’ll see that I’m a force to be reckoned with.  I just can’t wait to get in there with him.”

In part, and privately admitted by a member of McKenzie’s team, the controversy hanging over their first meeting surrounded the timing of the stoppage rather than the decision itself.  Phil Edwards, the referee, gave the challenger the opportunity to continue after a left hook had floored him.  Ovill looked groggy, a curtailment would have been easier to swallow at that point.

“I think the same”, says Bellew, “he should have stopped it when McKenzie went down because he got up and wobbled, he didn’t answer any of the questions asked of him or walk to the referee and put his hands up.  I answered those questions to the ref when I went down.  Phil tried to give him the benefit of the doubt but I came in with the right hand, he saw the power I was coming in with and he pulled McKenzie out.”

In mitigation, ‘The Upsetter’ could argue that he was soaking up Bellew’s steam in a bid to find the same gaps that he had exploited during the early going.  The Liverpudlian disagrees, arguing that his antagonist did not take a leaf from his book after the touchdown. 

“I was ready to steam in and finish him.  McKenzie didn’t do what I did when I got up, he didn’t bring it to me.  Had the fight have gone on he’d have been viciously knocked out.  It is all well and good saying he wasn’t hurt but the fact is he hit the floor, got himself up and didn’t come back at me.  I got up at six, was talking to the referee and brought it to him,” stressed the 28-yerar-old.

“It will be no different on Saturday night, he is going to get knocked out.  Ovill is a world-class four round fighter, highly dangerous for four rounds then loses steam so his [winning] Prizefighter run suited him down to the ground.  He is explosive early, really bringing it to you, but his heart and desire fades.  I am on a mission to beat him.

“I don’t care what he brings to the ECHO Arena (Liverpool) on Saturday.  I won’t be cautious but I won’t be naïve by looking to knock him out in a few rounds like I did last time.”

Bellew feels that the 31-year-old made the drug claims due to an inability to comprehend just how the reigning champion brought himself back into the fight.  Telling me that he made a silent point to Ovill after getting up from that brutal second decking.

“To be honest I got to my feet and the first thing I did was to look at him.  I noticed that he was stunned by how well I recovered.  He was looking to see if my eyes were going everywhere.  I looked straight at him with clear eyes, which is why he didn’t bring it to me late in the fight.  My head was clear and he knows I’m a big puncher who is dangerous when in that position,” was his explanation as to how the fight turned on its head.

“I know what I got caught with, the mistakes I made.  I made a cardinal mistake, nearly paid for it but my condition brought me through.  I was more angry with myself, I had been knocked down so was frustrated.  It won’t be as dramatic this time.

“I am a good boxer, I just haven’t shown that yet.  I have shown my power but come Saturday I’ll be showing both sides off.”

A fan of US TV, Bellew may recognise the dynamic at work in his relationship with another domestic rival, Nathan Cleverly – it is Tony Soprano and Ralph Cifaretto all over again.  The two complimented each other through gritted teeth for a few months, then they had a few verbal spats and the whole thing now seems destined to end in the kind of electric altercation that punctuated season four of The Sopranos when Tony and Ralph came to blows. 

Cleverly-Bellew, like Cifaretto’s eggs, is heating up nicely, sparked into further life when the two nearly had to pulled apart during May’s presser for their aborted meeting, a fight that was mooted when WBO titlist Juergen Braehmer withdrew from a title defence against Nathan only to be nixed due to Tony’s inability to make the division limit safely at such short notice.

I had wondered at the time if Tony’s trip to London for the presser had been a fool’s errand, whether he would have been best served by staying in Liverpool to work on his weight.  Bellew, though, explained that his body could not handle the quick poundage loss as well as pointing out that the face-off, which kicked into life immediately, has made the potential meeting a must-see amongst British fans.

“I don’t regret it because it put me a lot closer to Nathan than I was six months ago.  He is now WBO world champion and I know he wants to fight me so it wasn’t a bad thing.  The experience wasn’t nice, I lost a lot of weight in thirty-six hours, fourteen lbs in the space of eighteen hours, but I don’t regret that.  The experience has made me stronger,” insists the three-time ABA heavyweight titlist.

“But I just don’t like him, he’s smug and has a smug way about him that annoys me and winds me up.  He also looks like Nick Cotton out of Eastenders so that drives me nuts as well.

“Nathan thinks he’s better than the average person.  I don’t know whether it is because of his [Mathematics] degree or not, but he thinks he’s a cut above myself or anyone man on the street.  It comes across in the way he acts.  He’s just another normal person.

“He called me a bum at the press conference.  That didn’t bother me one bit, I just talked about the weight.  It got heated when he offered me outside and said he’d slap me about.  That made me lose my rag.  I wanted to fight right then.  If I’d have got my hands on him then god help him.

“The guy is a kid from the Welsh Valleys who hasn’t got as clue about life.  I’ve lived in places where he couldn’t survive and he doesn’t know what it is about so shouldn’t talk about going out on the streets – he wouldn’t last five minutes.  After what happened he knows not to say it to me again because he knows how it would go.  I actually think he was quite ruffled by the end – I was quite calm.

“I lost an awful lot of weight, was thrust in front of the cameras and went a bit crazy for ten minutes.  I got my composure back and did what needed to be done.  I went straight to the sauna for two-and-a-half hours and only lost a half pound so I knew it wasn’t going to happen by then.”

Dean Powell, matchmaker for FWP, dipped into his trusty Blackberry, bringing in Aleksy Kuziemski to ensure Nathan could still contest the vacant title.  Bellew, wary from the weight struggle and disappointed to have missed out, looked on with a somewhat critical eye.

“He did well to win but look at the left hooks he took against Kuziemski then think about what my left hook would do to the same guy.  It is a no-brainer.  He did what he had to do.  He was dreadful against Nadjib Mohammedi and only knows one way to fight.  I am adaptable, I know different ways to fight and will show that.  People should just wait and see,” his analysis of Nathan’s recent form.

“I really hope he doesn’t fight a puncher.  If he does then he’s getting knocked out so I have to fight him soon to make sure it is me who does him.  The guy eats shots for fun.  You’ve got a guy who is 6’ 1½’’ fighting Karo Murat at close range instead of using his jab.  I’d be all over Cleverly from the first bell.

“Everyone in boxing knows that he won’t be able to push me back, he doesn’t have that power.  He’s strong, quite fast and throws good body punchers but I’ll exploit his flaws when we fight.  I truly believe that if it makes money it makes sense.  I am sure this one will happen.  But I have to concentrate on Ovill first.”

A solidly built, 6’ 2½’’ specimen, Bellew looks into the scales ahead of each fight, the scales also look into him; he then has to start climbing the mountain.  “I am on the weight, it is sound,” his response to the perennial weight query. 

“I made the check weights first time of asking so am just training and eating properly.  I am working on the game plan and tactics, being at the weight takes the pressure off, really.

“I have got Mark Quinn and Mick McAllister training me now, it is going great, back to basics.  I needed the change, a little something different and my conditioning is great, I’m with Dave Billows and the guys on Everton FC’s conditioning team.  I’m in fantastic condition, raring to go.

“I have a laugh and a joke with the lads at the club.  It is nice spending time there.  The first time I went there I was a bit star struck and quiet but I’m used to it now.  The banter is good – it is a good laugh.  It really shows that Everton is a family club and environment, you go in there and are made to feel welcome by the lads.”

Everton’s feisty antipodean poacher Tony Cahill looks like he knows how to throw a shot or two, once celebrating a goal by letting a few shots go at the corner flag.  “I tried, mate, but he throws a better one, two and left hook than me,” laughed ‘Bomber’ when asked if he has passed on any tips.

“Tim is friends with a lot of top boxers in Australia like Danny Green and Kostya Tyszu so I am in regular touch with him.  He’s coming on Saturday, he’s a good lad who loves his boxing.”

As for McKenzie, the 15-0 (10) pugilist is adamant that Ovill’s chance came and went during those crazy first two stanzas in December.  Saying, “I am going to use my brain, I don’t know what round or how it will end but I know I’m going to win.”

“Deep down, I feel I’m going to stop him again because he can’t fight at my pace.  Anything can happen in boxing but as long as I stick to my skills it will be a one-sided, painful night for McKenzie.

“When I stick to what I do I am up there, a force to be reckoned with, but I can only be ranked on the fighters I’ve beaten so have to clean up domestically [the vacant British 175lb title is also on the line].  I know what I am capable of doing and where I can do but I’ll keep fighting whoever Frank puts in front of me and know I’ll show this great potential that everyone goes on about.”

Tickets, priced at £50, £80 and £100, are available on 0844 8000 400 or www.echoarena.com

Please send news and views to neckdeemus@hotmail.co.uk