The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsIt wasn’t the fictional story of ‘Pretty Boy’ Ricky Conlan in Hollywood’s version of Liverpool, it was the reality of Tony Bellew at Goodison Park as the Evertonian ‘Bomber’ achieved his dream and finally became World Champion on Sunday night.
With his hometown crowd raucously rooting him on Bellew won the vacant WBC Cruiserweight World Title after a brutal 3 Round battle against Ilunga Makabu. Although in many ways the fight resembled that of a movie, in which Bellew after a promising start was floored by a huge left hand by Makabu at the end of the 1st Round that sent Bellew rolling over on the floor and sent the crowd into pure silence.
Luckily for them Bellew was undeterred by this and came back well in the 2nd Round troubling Makabu with good heavy shots before the fight ended in an explosive 3rd Round. Bellew caught Makabu with a right hand that sent the man from Congo backpedalling onto the ropes as Bellew went in for the finish before the Liverpool man landed a massive left hook which dropped Makabu leaving him in a heap on the canvas.
The referee immediately called a halt to the contest as Bellew fell to his knees in tears at having finally won a World Title after two previous attempts failed at Light-Heavyweight, to win the championship; in his home stadium was an unforgettable moment for the Boxing world.
In the aftermath, Makabu was treated by the ringside doctors for a few minutes after the stoppage after being knocked put cold by the devastating final punch, but fortunately the man from Congo was perfectly alright afterwards.
In his interview, an ecstatic Bellew called out every major Cruiserweight in the world, including WBA Champion, Denis Lebedev saying he is ‘The Man’ in the division, challenging him to come over to England for a Unification fight. Also he sent a message to fellow Briton and former Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion, David Haye, proclaiming that the ‘Hayemaker’ needs to stop fighting clowns and come back down a division to fight a real Champion.
Haye duly responded to the challenge by firstly congratulating him on his victory, then stating that maybe Bellew’s brain must’ve gotten scrambled by the 1st Round Knockdown that he suffered and saying the Liverpool native has lost his mind by calling him out. Haye then ended by saying “I’m knocking out people who are talking too much, if you want to be next on the list, get ready to be smashed to bits.”
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