A Fond Farewell to Former Champion Tony Bellew
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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
2018 gave us lots to talk about and discuss in British boxing but there was one rebirth, of a man who was a fighter, thanks to his retirement that was not unexpected.
In January 2018 he entered the fray as Tony Bellew, 30-3-1, 20 KO’s, heavyweight contender and the man most likely to upset bookmakers as he was the man who beat as many odds as you could stack up against him.
By the end of the year he was plain Mr Anthony Bellew, father, brother, uncle, savior of his family and saint to those who saw the lengths to which he would go to put his family first and the community he loved center stage in a career that has now ended in the ring but we all hope continues with his voice mellifluously wafting over our air waves; if he could educationally devastate as a boxer, he can educationally inform you as a pundit.
My first impression of Bellew was that I didn’t like him.
I liked the man from the valleys, the kid with an education, the Welsh boxer who got a maths degree, Nathan Cleverley. Cleverley had got a version of a world title by default but no matter he was modest and a cut above your average pugilist, in my opinion…
He needed an opponent to cement that world title as the guy he was to face had pulled out…
In came, at very short notice, this brash and uncouth guy who threw expletives as scattergun and as effectively as he fought. He took the villain’s chair and we booed.
Since then he has been very candid that he took the fight at the wrong time and his struggle to make the light heavyweight limit meant the fight was never to happen at that time, but we had the press conference to remember.
We loved the drama and the theatre and booed and hissed with pantomimic glee at this upstart from Liverpool, this Scouse scuzz – Tony Bellew.
We should have done our research because there was depth already to Bellew.
His amateur career promised he would be a more than decent professional as he won ABA titles – but at heavyweight.
It was weight that dominated his progress in the professional ranks.
That debut happened in 2007 and he stopped his first opponent in the second round – the journey was ON. He was 24 years of age – relatively late to enter the pros – but the first 12 opponents came and went with losses pinned to their records.
By 2010 he was Commonwealth champion at light heavyweight – a weight that he later described as the one “that killed me.”
Having defended the Commonwealth title a couple of times he was announced as that late replacement for Jurgen Braemar who had pulled out of the WBO title fight with Cleverley. Bellew took the villain’s chair with 3 days notice but failed to make the weight and the fight was off – or rather postponed. In the meantime, he managed to get the British title before that first Cleverley fight.
So, began a major rivalry that would begin to define the early part of his career – against the man from the Welsh valleys – Nathan Cleverley.
On the 15th of October 2011 in Liverpool a majority decision saw Bellew’s first professional defeat as the mathematician beat the tactician in the ring.
Bellew was devastated but not down and out.
He rallied again took the British title and then took on Edison Miranda, stopping him in the 8th for the WBC international title.
All that stood between him and the next world title shot was an eliminator against Isaac Chilemba.
It was a two fight pathway as Bellew drew with Chilemba in the first fight and then was victorious in the second.
Adonis Stevenson was on his horizons. Stevenson had to get past Tavoris Cloud, which he did, but then Bellew was the mandatory and there was no hiding place. 1.3 Million viewers saw Adonis Stevenson stop Bellew – his first stoppage of his pro career – in the 6th round.
Stevenson was becoming THE light heavyweight champion and there was no disgrace attached to Bellew’s loss but Bellew was left dazed and the knockdown was a brutal one. Bellew had been behind on the score cards and the weight issue was now too big to ignore – Bellew made the decision to move up to cruiserweight.
Unbelievably about the same time, so did Nathan Cleverly.
From that devastating knock down by Stevenson Bellew plotted a new pathway that involved revenge over Cleverly at his new weight in 2104, and then a pathway towards a world title.
It happened at a place that bursts his heart – Goodison Park.
It is hard to get people to understand what football (soccer) means to you. For me, as a kid growing up in an alcoholic household it was my real family. We wore black and white and we supported our home boys. My father took me to my first game and from the age of 8 onwards I went with mates or alone to the rest. Today is till support my home town team.
Bellew had that sense of family for his home town team – Everton. Liverpool, like most UK cities, Liverpool can boast not one but two football teams. In Liverpool you are either blue or red. Unlike most cities that rivalry is not lethal.
They are Scousers together and that was made abundantly clear after the tragic events of Hillsborough when 96 Liverpool fans went to see a football match and never returned home. For football fans in the UK, this is their JFK moment.
I was watching the event unfold. In 2019 the police cover up will see senior police officers face trail for the manslaughter of these innocent people. The cover up, was monumental and it has taken the families nearly 30 years to get some form of Justice For The 96.
Bellew is a blue – Everton is his team. That is why he walks in to the theme tune of a 1960’s cop show – Z Cars. That is the theme tune for the Everton faithful to sing when their team takes the field.
Bellew is a Scouser – that is why you JFT96 on his shirts as he supports the justice campaign for his rival team’s – Liverpool – supporters.
Bellew is a working class hero and that is why in the most working class of arenas – the football ground of his heroes – Goodison park – he was triumphant in stopping Ilunga Makabu and taking the WBC belt in 2016.
It was a true fairy tale. It was not in New York but in the one place that, as a child he had called out and loved his heroes – that night he became one of them.
He defended his title but having had the rivalry of Cleverly, the battles earlier in his light heavyweight career with Isaac Chilemba and also the British battler, Ovill Mackenzie where it took two fights each for the defining moments to arrive, Bellew became the guy.
He was ready to go up again in weight and make sure that his future for his family was secure. The WBC announced him as the Emeritus Champion and he became that heavyweight.
He wanted that world title but instead he got two fights that went beyond ant rivalry or any battle royale with bitter men – David Haye I and David Haye II – the rematch.
There was true enmity here.
They did not like each other and Bellew made it his target to get Haye in a ring and win.
He did it not once but twice.
The first time he was the underdog, the second time – he was still the underdog.
In the first fight we now know that Haye was having problems with his Achilles and when it snapped during the fight the pathos of the evening, the towel being thrown in, the embrace afterwards would have stopped it but for the keyboard warriors.
Doubts were expressed as to whether Bellew won it or Haye lost it.
Bellew was made a millionaire on the back of it and he decided he needed to tango and tangle with Haye one more time.
In the second fight the win was emphatic as he stopped Haye for a second time. The rewards were still financial rather than towards the dream of being a heavyweight champion as Joseph Parker – Bellew’s sole target at heavyweight for a world title – was now on the radar of his stable mate, Anthony Joshua.
Bellew was lauded, applauded and loved. The villain that was brash and uncouth in the villain’s chair against Cleverly was replaced by a soulful man with deep thought and well considered opinions. He was feted on Sky Sports as a pundit who not only was THE guy, he was THE guy who knew.
His dance card was now empty…
Or was it…
Was there time for one last run on that square dance floor?
Oh yes there was…
When Aleksandr Usyk won the World Boxing Super Series there was only one name on his lips – Tony Bellew. The opportunity to fight for all the belts with the man who was THE man for THE guy was too much and he went into battle for one more time.
Having promised his wife he would retire straight after and knowing that if he won it would be the end… maybe… Bellew went in as the underdog – one more time.
The build up was filled with respect and mutual admiration and as an end to his fighting career this was the one we all hoped to see.
We did not want to see him sparked out on the canvass, but we wanted him on his shield with nothing left to give to the sport in true Bellew fashion – he enhanced a reputation and did not see it diminish sa a man who believes that he could beat Anthony Joshua showed just how special he was in stopping Bellew.
And so, in November 2018, the fighter known to us as Tony Bellew retired to go back to being the man his family know – Anthony Bellew.
A truly remarkable man who showed us all that to dream is something that makes your reality more achievable. With his friendship with promoter Eddie Hearn, after the devastating loss to Adonis Stevenson he became a man who had a plan. That plan bore fruit – maybe not all the belts he would have liked but as he tucks into his turkey at Christmas it will not come through a straw, he will be able to see his kids financially secure and his loving wife and him have a future that the brutality of a sport he loved and was his mistress until he became the master, will have provided for him in ways that other careers would have failed to do for an ordinary working class boy – a true legendary working class hero indeed. Here’s to 2019, Anthony…
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