Tony Bellew has always presented himself as something of a boxing historian and now the former cruiserweight king has revealed the best fight he has ever seen.
Bellew was involved in plenty of super match-ups himself, especially towards the end of his career. Although early battles with Welshman Nathan Clevery famously never quite ignited as people had hoped after fiery build-ups, Bellew was involved in some action-packed contests later on.
Chief amongst them was his world title win against Ilunga Makabu at Goodison Park, the home of his beloved Everton Football Club.
Although Bellew was drastically put down in the first round and rolled fully over backwards, he came back to stop his man and lift the famous WBC belt.
‘The Bomber’ defended it against BJ Flores in October of the same year, 2016, by putting down his man twice in round two, once in round three, then stopped in the same round, and then went into back-to-back Pay Per View duels with former cruiserweight turned heavyweight star, David Haye.
Bellew won both fights by stoppage, the first the 11th runs when Haye ruptured his Achilles, and the second in the fifth round having already put him down three times.
His last ever fight came with Oleksandr Usyk in 2018 when all four of the major cruiserweight belts were on the line. Despite boxing well, he ran out of gas and was stopped in the eighth round.
Speaking with Carl Froch on his Froch on Fighting podcast, Bellew was asked about the best fight he has ever seen.
“I’ll go with Barrera versus Morales, the first one, absolute mayhem.”
This fight involved two of Mexico’s most famous fighters and went on to be a trilogy between the WBC and WBO super bantamweight title holders. The first fight was a real war, with Morales ultimately declared winner by split decision.
This weekend has the potential to offer up another all-Mexican war as Canelo Alvarez takes on Jaime Munguia in the super-middleweight division for all four belts, and Munguia has already sent out a knockout warning to his opponent.
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