Tony Bellew has revealed his favourite fighter of all time – and he believes it will come as a surprise to some.
Former world champion Bellew can now be found plying his trade as a pundit on DAZN, where he has become known for his matter of fact style.
When recently asked by Carl Froch on his YouTube channel who is his favourite boxer of all time, Bellew named former heavyweight world champion Riddick Bowe, citing that he felt he could relate to ‘Big Daddy’ the most.
“Riddick Bowe, because I can relate to him the most. I loved him, absolutely adored him. It’s not one that everybody expects, but I loved Riddick Bowe.
Absolutely exceptional.”
Bowe competed from 1989 all the way to 2008, only suffering one loss in his 44 fight career.
That came in 1993, in the second of his three fight series with two weight world champion Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield.
The trilogy with Holyfield is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Bowe’s career, holding two wins to one majority decision defeat, as well as the accolade of being the first fighter to stop the all time great.
‘Big Daddy’ never shared a ring with either Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis, famously vacating his WBC title and throwing it into a trash can after the latter was called as his mandatory challenger.
The four were the consensus top dogs at heavyweight throughout the mid 1990s, a period considered a golden age for the division.
Although there has been yet to be a heavyweight era to rival the days of Bowe and co, the finalising of an undisputed fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk would go some ways towards reigniting a spark in the blue ribbon division.