Tony Bellew: I'm Not Even Thinking About Cleverly

Commonwealth light-heavyweight champion Tony Bellew insists he's moved on from missing out on a fight with Nathan Cleverly as he looks ahead to his clash against Ovill McKenzie.

The Liverpool fighter was drafted in at short notice to face the WBO light-heavyweight king in a world title clash at the O2 Arena in May when Juergen Braehmer pulled out of the clash with injury.

But Bellew failed to make the 12 stone 7lb weight limit after almost coming to blows with the Welshman at an ill-tempered press conference and Cleverly went on to beat Poland's Aleksy Kuziemski instead.

While Bellew's world title ambitions are well documented, he is refusing to look past the showdown with McKenzie at Liverpool's Echo Arena on July 16, which is also for the British title vacated by Cleverly.

"Forget about Nathan Cleverly for now," he said. "It's all about Ovill McKenzie and making him pay on July 16. I'm not interested in Nathan Cleverly."

Bellew will be looking to make McKenzie pay for accusations that drugs enabled him to recover from two early knockdowns before producing a ninth-round stoppage in their initial clash on the banks of the River Mersey in December.

"I'm looking forward to ramming the accusations down his throat. He's clutching at all the straws he possibly can," said Bellew.

"Why are you trying to drag our sport through the mud?" he asked his opponent. "You've made our sport look stupid but you're the one who is going to look stupid because I'm going to smash you from pillar to post."

Jamaican-born McKenzie, a one-time holder of Bellew's Commonwealth crown, was unmoved.

"My accusation is fair," he said. "In December last year I said I don't know if this guy is on drugs, but he looks like he's on drugs.

"On July 16 we have two drugs test, one before the fight, one after the fight and I don't see a problem with that."

He added: "I'm going to knock him out inside three rounds."

Bellew and McKenzie will share billing with John Murray and Kevin Mitchell's lightweight showdown on the Liverpool undercard for the WBO world super-featherweight title fight between champion Ricky Burns and Nicky Cook.