After gaining revenge over Nathan Cleverly, Tony Bellew had two places on his mind: home and Hollywood. His 12-week pre-fight camp paid off on a raucous if ultimately anticlimactic night in Liverpool and now he can get back to his “three beautiful kids”. Then it is a trip to the film capital of the world.
“I’ll be in Hollywood from 4 December,” Bellew revealed. “I’ve got business there with this guy called Ryan Coogler. He’s an amazing movie producer. I didn’t tell Eddie [Hearn, his promoter] because it wasn’t important; the only thing that was important was this fight and setting the record straight. But that’s now done so I’m off.”
Bellew declined to expand on this startling opportunity, saying only that the film he is taking part in is not based on his life story but that he definitely has a speaking role.
It was unusual to see a man who likes talking almost as much as he does punching so tight-lipped, and he was more like his usual self speaking of his next move as a boxer. For Bellew there is only one place to go having overcome Cleverly on a somewhat controversial split decision here, and that is across town, to his second home.
“My dream is to fight at Goodison Park,” said the loud and proud Everton fan. “Forget Wembley, or Vegas, I just want to fight at Goodison Park. It’s been a dream ever since I was a child, no one’s ever done it. Let’s just stick a ring in the middle of Goodison Park and do it.”
Hearn described a fight there next year as “an option,” adding: “We’ve already spoken to them [the club] and they’d love to be involved.”
Yet he did not look wholly convinced that he could sell out a Bellew fight at a football stadium, which was hardly a surprise given what had taken place less than an hour before he spoke.
Bellew v Cleverly II at cruiserweight – the Welshman won the first fight at light-heavy in 2011 – was meant to be a war between two men who genuinely loathe each other. Instead it was a gruelling spectacle in which Bellew huffed and puffed but could not blow Cleverly’s house down while his opponent all but stopped competing from the ninth round onwards, later blaming an injured right hand. The judges at ringside scored it 116-112, 115-113, 114-115. Terry O’Connor, who gave the fight to Cleverly, must have been watching another scrap in another city.
Bellew described a split-decision victory as a “disgrace” but ultimately he proved a far more robust and aggressive cruiserweight than Cleverly, who having now fought three times at that level has admitted he may have to drop back down to light-heavyweight. “I’m caught between the two weights,” said the 27-year-old, who has now suffered two defeats in 15 months after his pounding in August 2013 by Sergey “Crusher” Kovalev.
For Bellew it is a case of onwards and upwards. After Hollywood and time with his children, he wants to make good at Goodison, with the WBO champion Marco Huck firmly in his sights. Victory over Cleverly doubled as an eliminator for the German’s title.
“Huck fights non-stop for 30 seconds of every round, and I always come to fight,” said Bellew. “So we’d put on a great show.”
The only problem is that Huck, who has defended his title on 13 successive occasions, would almost certainly want the contest to take place in Germany, while Bellew has said he will not travel there having seen his fellow Liverpudlian Paul Smith lose to Arthur Abraham in Kiel two months ago on a unanimous points decision that had home bias written all over it.
A possible stalemate then, but for Bellew there is at least the sweet feeling of redemption, albeit in turgid circumstances. The self-proclaimed blue is feeling anything but right now.
