Tony Bellew believes he has what it takes to return to the sport of boxing five years on from his retirement and win a fresh world title.
‘Bomber’ Bellew was once cruiserweight champion, and made one successful defence of that title before moving on to fight and beat David Haye twice.
He called time on his career in the fight after, a knockout loss to Oleksandr Usyk, but recently floated the idea of a return.
The man he was targetting was Lukasz Rozanski – the holder of the belt in the WBC’s latest, bridgerweight. The weight class is fought between 200 and 214lbs, and fills a gap between cruiser and heavy.
The Polish fighter knocked out Alen Babic to win the belt, and was subsequently called out by Bellew.
Speaking to IFL TV, the Brit reveals that it now looks unlikely.
“It doesn’t look like it does it? Because Rozanski has more options so… I’d have 100% smashed the granny out of him. Absolutely. He does not stand a chance against me, I’m sorry. But, you know, it’s been taken out of my hands.”
Despite Bellew’s wishes, he says his promoter and wife were against the idea.
“My once very loyal friend and promoter, Mr Eddie Hearn, I don’t think wants to entertain it. My wife definitely didn’t want to entertain it. Mr Rozanski wanted to. We’d had a couple of words between ourselves. He fancied it. But then a brighter option came available to him and I’m sure all will be revealed in due course.”
Rozanski is now heavily rumoured to be facing current WBC cruiserweight champion, Badou Jack, in his first defence of the title.