Tony Bellew continues to mention the name of one world champion who would entice him to make a ring return five years after his last fight.
Evertonian Bellew retired off the back of a valiant but ultimately losing effort against a pound-for-pound great in Oleksandr Usyk in 2018. It is that sort of high-level match-up that many boxers like to take at the end of their careers to really test themselves one last time so they can leave the sport knowing they have nothing left.
In Bellew’s case, that fight for all of the cruiserweight belts came after back-to-back knockout wins over British rival David Haye on Sky Box Office and presumably two of his biggest paydays. As such you might think there was nothing left to achieve for the former WBC cruiserweight champion.
However, when asked by Stillryan for the one man he would come back for, Bellew, who is now a DAZN pundit, responded in a heartbeat.
“Lukasz Rozanski for the WBC bridgerweight championship of the world.”
Polish puncher Rozanski is 15 and 0 as a professional and won the Bridgerweight title in April after knocking out Alen Babic in 130 seconds. However the record keepers at BoxRec don’t yet recognise the new championship and few other boxers have shown any interest in competing for a belt named after Bridger Walker, a young boy who saved his four-year-old sister from a dog attack.
A fight with Rozanski represents a chance for Bellew to become a two-weight world champion, which he says is the only reason he would make a return to the ring aged 40.
This week, Bellew also named the fighter he faced that he disliked the most during his career.