Alright Tony
You might remember I had a chat with you last April for SecondsOut and wrote the article below. Could do with having a catch up chat you and speaking about your title aspirations at some point. I'll give you a ring in a few days if that's ok?
Prospects - Tony Bellew
By Andrew Wake: What do you do when someone like John Conteh tells you a fighter is a dead cert to win a world title? I’ll tell you what you do – you take notice.
Recently the man who reigned supreme as WBC world light-heavyweight champion for four years back in the late 1970’s has been raving to anyone who will listen about another heavy-fisted Liverpudlian he is confident will go on to clean up the 175 pound weight class and bring world titles back to Merseyside.
The boxer Conteh talks about with such confidence is non other than triple ABA champion Tony “Bomber” Bellew.
“To be honest, someone like John Conteh saying things about me like that puts me under a lot pressure.” Bellew admitted. “If he’s got all that faith in me then I’m happy. I’ve just got to live up to the hype now.
24 year old Tony started fighting at a young age but didn’t gravitate to the boxing gym immediately, instead he took up a combat sport of a different kind but didn’t find it fully to his liking.
“I did kickboxing and I represented my country a few times, but what happened was I went into one of the finals and it was semi contact. I connected with a punch and knocked the kid out and I was disqualified. Luckily I had a really good trainer, who was a friend of my father, and he suggested I take up boxing.”
From there the young warrior from Wavertree embarked on a very successful career as an amateur. Fighting out of Liverpool’s Rotunda ABC, Bellew claimed the both the 2002 and 2003 novice ABA title’s by knocking out every man he faced. Then, when he was eligible for the Senior championships, he stepped up to the 91kg heavyweight class and added even more titles to his collection.
“There were too many 81kg fighters at Rotunda so I choose to move up and at heavyweight I just reigned for three years.
“I had a good grounding at Rotunda ABC, which I think is the best club in Britain. As an amateur I trained like a professional, the only thing I didn’t do was live strictly by a diet and that’s why I boxed as a heavyweight.”
By the end of 2005, Bellew had won the senior National ABA title for three years running, but everything wasn’t all hunky dory. Despite his status as the best heavyweight in the British amateur game, Tony knew that he would not be on the plane to Melbourne, Australia to take part in the 2006 Commonwealth games.
He recalls: “I was reigning ABA champion and when the Commonwealth team was selected, I was overlooked for whatever reason. There’s a lot of politics in amateur boxing but I knew I just had to get on with things.
“Being rejected at that stage has added to me if anything, it has been a character building issue and has made me stronger and tougher. I had my ups and downs in the amateurs, but I now look back on it with fond memories.”
Bellew decided to turn professional in 2007 and visited various gyms around the North West of England but when he wandered into Anthony Farnell’s Manchester house of pain, he knew he’d found the perfect set up.
“We just clicked straight away. I was always a fan of Anthony Farnell as a fighter and when I saw the way he trains his fighters it was quite an easy decision to go there. I did a one week trial and he was happy with me and I was happy with him.”
Bellew signed with allegedly’s Sports Network organisation and made his debut in the paid ranks in Nottingham last October, stopping the always durable Welshman Jaime Ambler in the second round.
“I knew that Ambler would come to survive, but once I got into the middle of the ring I could just see that I’d struck fear into him and he knew that I wasn’t one of those people that would mess around, he knew I was there to hurt him. It wasn’t personal, I went in there the same way I go into every fight which is to do damage and Jaime Ambler felt that on the night.”
He added, “Sports Network gave me a good bill, I had the music I wanted the ring walk and they made everything go well on the night. I’ll never forget that for as long as I live, it will go down as one of my most memorable nights in boxing.”
Since that excellent debut, Bellew has added another three names to his resume. He knocked out two more Welshmen in Adam Wilcox and Wayne Brooks - the Brooks fight being voted as Sports Network’s undercard fight of the year - and most recently he out-punched the much heavier Paul Bonson over four rounds on the flip side of Amir Khan’s clash with Martin Kristjansen.
So how does the “Bomber” see the next 12 months panning out?
“The next twelve months are going to be interesting.” He said. “I’ll just see how it goes and I’ll leave things to Frank (Warren), he’s managed so many great champions and he knows what he’s doing. I just want to keep fighting and stay active.
“Certainly within 18 months I’ll be fighting for titles. I want to win every title possible, starting with the Central Area to the very top. I’m not going to avoid anyone. There’s not a single person at light heavy that I’d avoid so I’m looking at every single belt along the way.”
Asked if there was any particular title he wanted more than any, he replied “I’d like to win and defend the Lonsdale belt so I can keep it. That would be a big thing for me. I see my potential taking me further than that, but I really want that belt on my mantelpiece.”
http://www.secondsout.com/uk/news.cfm?ccs=228&cs=24401
