Tony Bellew has doubled down on his plans to come out of retirement.
Former cruiserweight world champion Bellew was last in the ring for an undisputed title fight with Oleksandr Usyk, back in 2018. ‘The Bomber’s’ successful career saw him win his world title at Goodison Park and defend his belt, as well as coming out on top of a two-fight series with David Haye.
However, the boxing pundit has seemingly set his sights on becoming a two-weight world champion. Last week, Bellew took to social media to call out bridgerweight title holder Lukasz Rozanski and has reiterated his desire to return to the ring.
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“It’s not a spat, it’s someone I think I could beat,” Bellew told TalkSPORT. “I’m not going to lie, I’m 40 years of age and I don’t know. Getting ready for Creed 3 last year I got in really good shape and ended up seeing a set of abs that I hadn’t seen in the best part of a decade and I thought ‘why not’.
“To be totally honest, I couldn’t make cruiserweight again safely and I’m straight up to the point, but I could make bridgerweight nice and comfortable and if I’m being honest, I think I’d absolutely pulverise him.”
Bridgerweight was created by the WBC in 2020 and is the weight class above cruiserweight, with the limits being 200-224lbs. Bellew is confident of making his way through a training camp but admits there is still one unanswered question before he is able to come out of retirement.
“After that you think ‘can I take the impact and the pounding of the punches’, that’s the only question I’ve really got left to answer,” he added. “I know my body can get through a camp and I know I can do it.”
Eddie Hearn was recently asked about the possibility of making the fight for Bellew. The Matchroom promoter admitted it is not the first time that ‘The Bomber’ has spoken about fighting Rozanski and refused to rule out the chances of arranging the world title fight.
“He’s flirting with the idea of fighting Rozanski and when Rozanski knocked out Babic in the first round, Tony said, ‘I could become a two division world champion there’. So, he’s mentioned it a few times,” Hearn told Boxing Social.
“It’s difficult to go back after three or four years and start taking big shots again but Tony’s a competitor. Never say never.”
