Absolutely gold from Tony Bellew

[ruedboy]

Bellew, for all his faults, had the X-Factor.
He believed in himself.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

When Bellew beat Ilunga Makabu, Makabu was the favourite and a hyped fighter. You also forgot to mention his role in Creed. This thread stinks of bitterness and hatred. Bellew's story is like a real-life Rocky tale.

Bitterness and hatred??? I actually like Bellew, I’m on record saying he’s one of the nicest fighters I’ve ever met but when he’s criticising a fighter for never beating a champion when he’s never been a champion himself just makes him sound like a fraudulent hypocrite.

I actually sat ringside at Goodison Park when Bellew beat Makabu and as a fellow Evertonian I was buzzing for him as that would’ve been an incredible moment for any lifelong Everton fan. However it doesn’t change the fact he won a vacant title against a very average fighter. He was a 6/4 underdog, I had £400 on him. Not exactly Rocky vs Apollo odds is it?

And why is Creed relevant? This was about his BOXING career. Not his acting career.

“Real life Rocky story” that’s absolutely pathetic...😂😂
Rocky won the lineal HW title from a 48-0 undefeated champion. Bellew never beat a champion in his entire career.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Bellew improved. The bellew who lost to Chilemba vs the bellew who fought usyk I think had a lot more to his game and was much cuter. But yeah he was terribly basic and overrated by fellow brits during his lhw run. I remember bolonti thrashing him and dumfounding him for about 10 rounds. Ovil McKenzie putting him on his back like a mac truck had hit him. But all in all bellew did well for his skill level and worked hard to improve. If he hadn't improved he wouldnt of had his CW run which was the highlight of his career obviously topped with beating a crippled David haye. Bellew is somewhat likeable to me as fellow northern scum from the UK

I’m a fellow scouser myself mate, I found him a bit embarrassing and cringey cause we don’t all act and talk like that. But I’m always happy when a working class lad does well for himself financially.

I just found it funny that he was criticising Cleverly for winning vacant titles, when every title he ever won was vacant😂😂😂

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

For a guy that needed 24 rounds to beat Chilemba, 24 rounds to beat Cleverly, and got washed by Stevenson, it's amazing he disposed of Makabu as easily as he did at 200. That victory really made his career. Got him the green belt and made the Hate fights viable at heavyweight.

Did you rate Makabu though? I thought Kucher already exposed how basic he was.

I was so confident Bellew would beat him, he was so much more technically skilled than Makabu. I didn’t think he’d take him out that early though.

[Simurgh]

I never understood why people thought Tony was good. Always seemed to fall ass backwards into lucky situations.

He won a few fights being an underdog, getting nice TKO/KOs. Most notably two Haye fights. Makabu fight, in which he was also an underdog, put him on map.

Working for Sky, being Eddie's pal and being constantly interviewed by IFLTV helped a lot.

[alexguiness]

Bellew did VERY well for a fighter who is actually pretty limited in terms of ability.

I admire his decision making, and he marketed himself perfectly in taking the Haye fight(s).

[moltres.]

he was a good character, and cool af that his character was on creed.

anyone of us could of had a boxing career if we started early enough and had a bit of athletic ability.

i didnt like him at first but he grew on me.

[deathofaclown]

For a guy that needed 24 rounds to beat Chilemba, 24 rounds to beat Cleverly, and got washed by Stevenson, it's amazing he disposed of Makabu as easily as he did at 200. That victory really made his career. Got him the green belt and made the Haye fights viable at heavyweight.

In all fairness, Bellew seemed much better at Cruiserweight than LHW. I’ve not seen many fighters more drained than him at LHW. He had no business being there for so long.

He was a decent fighter, so not surprising he could pick up decent wins at cruiserweight.

He is both overrated and underrated at the same time. He was a good solid fringe world level fighter that could beat decent names on his day but was never going to trouble the very top fighters.

Did extremely will for himself financially when you consider his level. Can’t knock him for that. He was savvy enough to know how to make money and who to chase.