Former world cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew has confirmed his retirement from boxing, 12 days after his defeat by Oleksandr Usyk.
In the aftermath of the 8th round loss to the Ukrainian, Bellew said his career in the ring was "over".
Bellew said his greatest achievement was beating Ilunga Makabu at his beloved Goodison Park in 2016 to win the WBC cruiserweight title.
"There will be no more fighting from me," said Bellew, who retires aged 35.
Bellew, who compiled a career of 30-3-1, added: "The only thing you will see me doing from here on in is trying to act sensible and being myself. I have had a fantastic career and have realised my dreams.
Geniunely don't think he will back. Bellew's a smart cat whether people want to admit that or not and he's got all the money he'll ever need. Fighting again in anything other than a absolutely mega fight (which could only come about in crazy circumstances) makes no sense at this point.
Yeah this. He has a 'Bellew' persona, which he dials up in fight week and for pressers (And on a League of their Own for comedic purposes for anyone who watches that). But deep down I am fairly sure hes a shrewd chap, who will get out of the game at the right time.
Congratulations to Bellew for retiring as the 9th best Cruiserweight in the world and his career highlight being defeating a 5ft 8 blown up Super-Middleweight in his hometown after being bounced off the floor.
Congratulations to Bellew for retiring as the 9th best Cruiserweight in the world and his career highligh beating a 5ft 8 blown up Super-Middleweight in his hometown after being bounced off the floor.
I felt sorry for Tony when I saw his wife at the fight and then her post fight antics. Can see how he got the motivation to punch people in the face having to live with that.
If you look at what people thought of him after he got dropped and won a horrible, scrappy bout against Ajisafe for the Commonwealth title...he's hugely overachieved. A year after that he lost to Cleverly. He eventually got a world title shot that many felt he didn't warrant and he got smashed. That was 5 years ago.
Five years later, he's a multimillionaire, who won a legit world title at Cruiser in a fight he was written off in. He then made a ton of money off two joke fights with Haye, but...he wasn't to know Haye was injured in both, he decided to try and set himself up for life, and it paid off.
He then had a crack at the man at Cruiser, was competitive for a bit and then lost.
He is set for life, he has a career on a plate as a pundit and is very well known among casuals, when 5 years ago only boxing fans knew of him, and many of them derided his ability. He can also look back on his career as having been a World, European and British champion.
He's had a very good career, and yet he had no single trait that was special, so I think he overachieved, and can be very happy with his career. He was never elite level, and his heavyweight stab was just a cash out that resulted in wins over a broken man, but only a fraction of pro boxers get close to having the career he has had, and even less can retire as financially secure and healthy as he has done. Fair play to him.
when he went life and death with ovill he was totally written off on esb.
since then: world champion, goodison stadium fight, ppv series with cleverley and haye and to top it all holywood star in the rocky film. cant knock it really can you.
It has been done so when he come back in a year or two, the PPV numbers will be even bigger. Comebacks are always bigger in terms of media interest than just 'rests'.
"Eddie Hearn gets £100m together for me and offers me one more fight, what do I say? Wow, wow - that is probably what I would say. Wow, wow and then walk into the missus and say 'Eddie has come on board with £100m' and she would probably hand me divorce papers."
Yeah I bet she would, and then demand £50m of that as part of a divorce settlement.
"Eddie Hearn gets £100m together for me and offers me one more fight, what do I say? Wow, wow - that is probably what I would say. Wow, wow and then walk into the missus and say 'Eddie has come on board with £100m' and she would probably hand me divorce papers."
Yeah I bet she would, and then demand £50m of that as part of a divorce settlement.
A guy who has done literally nothing since and who's only real name on his record before the Bellew fight was Kucher who again has gone on to do nothing.
Makabu was a very good win. Big puncher, southpaw, awkward opponent on a winning run. Is makabu world class? Probably not, but he was a favourite going into the fight and Bellew destroyed him, gotta give credit where it's due. You can pick at anyone's record except for the few greats like Ali or Leonard, anyone's record can be picked at.
Bellew has a solid body of work between LHW-CW. Proved himself world class and gave Usyk, an elite fighter a tricky and night's work and a good fight for 7 rounds, that is no small feat and deserved credit
One of the Tweets criticised the 'grass' who told authorities about David Beckham using his phone while driving, and another essentially said reality TV stars shouldn't get depression and it should only be reserved for soldiers.
"Eddie Hearn gets £100m together for me and offers me one more fight, what do I say? Wow, wow - that is probably what I would say. Wow, wow and then walk into the missus and say 'Eddie has come on board with £100m' and she would probably hand me divorce papers."
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