by Edward Chaykovsky
WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew is expecting to demolish contender BJ Flores on Saturday night at Liverpool's Echo Arena.
Back in May, Bellew (27-2-1, 17KOs) captured the WBC title in Goodison Park with a brutal third round knockout of Ilunga Makabu. After the contest was over, he called for a fight with former two division world champion David Haye (28-2, 26KOs).
Haye has been fighting in the heavyweight division since 2008. He posted a video response to Bellew's taunts, stating that he's more than willing to face the Liverpool fan-favorite, but refuses to come down to cruiserweight. If he won't come down, then Bellew is willing to come right up.
It's been five months and Bellew still has Haye on his mind. But not only Haye, Bellew is also interested in unifications against WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk and WBA/IBF champion Denis Lebedev.
"I'm after mega-fights and me fighting Haye equals mega-fight," Bellew said told Nick Parkinson. "Also on my radar are Oleksandr Usyk and Denis Lebedev, because I want to unify the weight division, so it's going to be one of those names.
"It's got to be a mega-fight but also tie into that, I've got a very exciting mandatory to fulfil in Mairis Briedis if he comes through the Simon Vallily fight so it's exciting times ahead."
But that doesn't mean that he's overlooking the challenge of Flores.
"I expect a hard fight against Flores, I expect him to come at me, he's in the last-chance saloon so he'll try to give it everything he can to defeat me," Bellew said. "He's in the same shoes I was in on May 29 at Goodison Park, but he's in my backyard.
"He's in the last-chance saloon, he's fighting for the best belt in boxing, I'm giving him the chance of a lifetime, but make no mistake about it, I'm going to render him unconscious the exact same way that I rendered Ilunga Makabu."