Tony Bellew: David Haye has been the barometer of what I’ve wanted to achieve in boxing
I honestly don’t have a clue what I’ll be earning from the David Haye rematch. Don’t get me wrong, I hope it’s better than last time. I’m not sure where this £2.8million figure from the first fight has come from, I definitely didn’t earn that.
Everything depends on ticket sales, sponsorship and then there’s pay-per-views and I’m not the accountant. Look, my goals in professional boxing have always been changing. My expectation when I turned pro was to win a British title and pay for my terraced house, own my own home out right.
After two years in the game, my goal changed to get a bigger house and own ten terraced houses. I surpassed that and eventually my career led me to winning a world title in Goodison Park.
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Everything I’ve set out to do I’ve done. I lived the dream. I’ve realised that money doesn’t really mean anything and I’ve only learned that in the last year of my life. I hate the fact people think I’ve got cash to burn, because I don’t. Every single penny I’ve earned, I’ve invested. I did buy myself a nice new watch, but I don’t even get to drive a flash car. I really want a Rolls-Royce Wraith, but instead I’ve got a nice Audi.
No matter what happens now, my kids are financially secure for the rest of their lives. And they can live like kings. Not that they notice, they’re always complaining about me being narky. But when they’re older, hopefully they’ll understand.
We live in a lovely house in a lovely area, but honestly if I didn’t have my kids, I’d still live where I’m from. As hard and tough as it is, but I’m very proud of my upbringing.
The only reason I’m letting this Haye fight go back to London is because there’s no pressure on me. Everyone will be turning up to see Tony Bellew get his mouth shut on Haye’s stomping ground.
I’ve given 20 years of my life to boxing, I’ve been living this sport since I was 15. But, in 20 years time I won’t be able to pay for my mortgage on my achievements. The bank doesn’t care if I was a WBC cruiserweight champion or fought at Goodison Park.
What have I got to show for 20 years investment in boxing? Well, I’m financially secure, I’m my own boss and my kids have a fantastic life. That means more to me than any belt or any victory.
Haye as humble as Madonna
I wouldn’t say I didn’t get under his skin, but there was no violence when me and David Haye filmed the ‘Gloves Are Off’ this week. There was no storming off, no water thrown. I did make a few points about why he’s come back to boxing.
David Haye always said his plan was to retire at 31 and he did that. Retired aged 31 a very wealthy man. My question to him was why are you back?
Don’t make out that I’m taking fights purely for the money when that’s obviously the sole reason he is fighting me. I’m financial secure, I’m done now. David’s been financial secure since before he turned 30, earned over £20million in his career.
For him to even try and suggest I took this fight just for the money is absolutely absurd. This is my job, this is the only thing in the world I’m good at! Haye is a fantastic fighter, but all good things must come to an end and his career will end on May 5.
Injury saved him last time, but there will be nowhere to go after our rematch for David Haye.
He thinks I’m trying to get under his skin, but I’m really not. I’m just saying a few home truths that he doesn’t like to hear. That’s the top and bottom of it really, he can’t tell me anything that I haven’t already heard from him.
He’s the one who was extremely embarrassed about what happened last time we met in the ring. He made all the braggadocious claims. Leave me in a coma etc, etc, etc. He said a lot of nice things in the press conference, but I believe he’s about as humble as Madonna.
He’s just biting his lip, biding his time until May 5 when he thinks he’s going to render me unconscious, which he 100 per cent believes he is going to do. He kind of gave himself away at the end of the press conference when he started going on about a ‘violent knockout’.
I don’t want to hurt him, just beat him. If the knockout comes, that’s great, but I want him getting up when the referee counts him out. Go home safe, whereas he’s fixed on this ‘violent knockout’ nonsense. That was an indicator of his true colours.
I expected Haye to retreat, to be honest. I’m not interested in his credit and I know it’s killing him to hold his tongue.
I knew from our sparring session in 2005 that I would fight David Haye at some stage. He was the goal the minute that sparring session finished. Haye has been the barometer of where I’ve wanted to be my whole career. The fact that I’m sharing a stage with him means I’ve achieved the goals I set out to achieve when I turned pro.
I don’t think I was mentally or physically ready to face Haye until now. Boxing is all about timing. Things have fallen in place for me, but not always. Goodison came at the right time, but fighting Adonis Stevenson in Canada in 2013 was not the right time for me. The loss to Nathan Cleverly in 2011 even came at the right time for me. If I had got the decision that night I would have been tied into a very, very long contract. Instead I lost, and was able to move forward as I wanted.
We’ve known for quite some time that Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez would be doing their rematch on the same date as me and Haye. It’s a brilliant fight and I’m really hoping it’s going to be on Sky Sports as a boxing bonanza as part of the Bellew-Haye bill. That’s obviously down to the guys at Sky Sports Boxing and Eddie Hearn, but hopefully we can get it over the line.
Stormzy a powerful voice for Great Britain
Stormzy’s performance at the Brit Awards was incredible. Everybody seems to have forgotten about Grenfell and there is someone is to blame for what happened, that’s for sure. But as a talented artist, Stormzy always finds a way to send a message. He’s become the voice of the underprivileged and young kids across the country.
Lots of youngsters look up to him. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be labelled as a role model, but he’s a damn good one. He’s speaking up for what he feels, in my opinion he’s just telling the truth. Our news channels want to pick up more news from abroad than at home.
Why not forget about Donald Trump and report what’s going on in our country? There must be a shooting or fatal killing in my city every week. There’s a gun problem here too. There shouldn’t be a gun in England, and we’ve got a huge firearm issue going on in Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and elsewhere.
Paul Pogba needs to be let loose
You can never bet against Manchester City. Arsenal have a mountain to scale to beat them. Kevin De Bruyne is the best midfielder in the Premier League since Steven Gerrard. Then he’s got big players around him like Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane. Pep Guardiola will have got great satisfaction this season because everyone told him he couldn’t come to England and play the football he did at Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
I think Chelsea and Manchester United might be a borefest. Both managers are very defensively savvy and they set up teams so not to lose a game.
It’s criminal the way that Paul Pogba is being held back, he’s an amazing player – let him off the leash. Jose Mourinho is a special manager, don’t get me wrong, but his football is not great to watch and Pogba is suffering for it. It would be a terrible shame if Pogba cannot be allowed to play the way he did at Juventus.
Slowly but surely Mourinho will bring United back to super stardom, but it won’t be pretty. United fans should accept that, they’ve been spoiled over the years with David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes.
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