Briton Tony Bellew is a former world champion who was last seen in the ring in 2018. He tried to take away all the titles from the absolute champion of the Ukrainian cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk, but flew into a brutal knockout. After the fight, Bellew announced his retirement and since then has fully focused on working on television – he is a boxing expert and commentator.
The ex-champion spoke about the real level of American coaches: “I usually don’t support all this noise about American coaches. I’m not saying that none of them are really cool. Eat. There are even some really great ones. But they are no better than our coaches. I know from my own experience, because I once spent several months in the USA – I held a camp there, traveled around the country, tried to cooperate with other mentors. I wanted to see what exactly they can offer that our specialists cannot give.”
Bellew was convinced that the Americans were better at only one thing: “Do you believe that they know more than our coaches? Believe me, it’s not. But in some ways they are really stronger. They perfectly master the art of putting smoke in their eyes. They are better at presenting themselves well, talking about themselves as the greatest coach in boxing, who has 15 world champions on his team. You are “led” to all this, you come, because you were promised sparring with champions. And you immediately realize that all this is just talk. Yes, those fighters do often act like they are world champions. But you know what? That’s all before the first sparring session…”
Last week, Bellew said that “only one fighter in the world can beat Fury,” and then called the main intrigue of the Fury-Usyk fight.