By Terence Dooley

Liverpool's Tony Bellew has told Sky Sports News that he has already started to reap the benefits of his switch to cruiserweight despite being over a month away from his first bout at the weight.  Bellew challenged for the WBO and WBC titles at 175lbs, a decision defeat to Nathan Cleverly and sixth-round TKO loss to Adonis Stevenson respectively, and he is confident that he will beat Russia's former world title challenger Valery Brudov, 41-4 (28), at his home city's Echo Arena venue on March 15th.

"I've enjoyed coming home from the gym and putting a good solid meal in me, and then doing another solid meal then going back to the gym," said Bellew, 20-2-1 (12).  "I'm back to training three or four times a day again whereas in the past you've been fighting the scales as well as training.  I've done that for the last five years, but am letting my body come back to where it naturally is."

He added: "Brodov's a two-time world title challenger, similar to myself, and only the real top guys have beaten him."

The 31-year-old former British and Commonwealth champion will be joined by former foe Nathan Cleverly up at 200lbs, with many predicting that a rematch is inevitable.  Bellew, though, believes that his Welsh rival will lose all his physical advantages if they meet again.

"He knows that all the advantages he had will be gone," he said.  "All that's there now is more power for me (at cruiserweight)."

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