Former cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew has recalled the awful experiences he had leading up to a weigh-in here he nearly died even before he got to the ring.
Bellew was always a big light heavyweight and often had a gruelling weight cut in the immediate run up to fights. His last fight at the weight however came in 2013 and was the hardest of them all.
Speaking to TalkSport about the weight issues surrounding Ryan Garcia’s recent fight with Devin Haney, Bellew was asked what he did to lose weight the night before that fight and recalled the awful ordeal in the hotel.
“When I fought Adonis Stevenson, getting off the last 5 lbs absolutely crucified me. My body was no longer allowing me to lose weight, I ran on a treadmill for an hour I didn’t lose any weight with a sweat suit on. I got in a sauna and didn’t lose any weight.
“At the time, my nutritionist said you’re not losing any weight. Your body has now gone into shutdown. The only way you can get this weight off is by dragging it out of your body, because I’d lost that much weight and that was with literally a sack full of salt and a bath so hot it burnt my skin. My backside was literally red raw. Burn to a core.”
He then explained how challenging that was and that it almost pushed him too far.
“I had to sit in this bath for 25 minutes and I got in and out, and it was the closest I’ve ever come to a breakdown. I was watching Kevin Hart on the iPad, laughing at the jokes and crying. This was the day before the biggest fight on my life. I can’t explain to you guys.
“My friend was there and saying ‘he’s got to get out of this bath, he’s dying guys,’ and my coach was standing there saying he’s got to make weight, it’s the WBC title, he’s got to make weight and that was the sort of arguments going on at the time.”
Bellew was then honest about the effects of that and how he performed on fight night.
“I got in the ring the next night and got the living daylights knocked out of me by Adonis Stevenson. I had about 30 seconds in me and they wasn’t enough.”
Bellew later moved up in weight and had big wins at heavyweight against David Haye, and cruiserweight, where he eventually became the WBC world champion before his final fight against Oleksandr Usyk saw him relieved of the title.
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