Bellew: Usyk’s “four belts are coming home with me”

By Tim Royner: Tony Bellew is predicting blood & pain for his opponent IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk this Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

Beating Usyk is going to a tremendous boost to Bellew’s legacy in the sport. It would be icing on the cake of his career. Bellew is one of those fighters that did nothing for most of his career. It’s only now in the twilight of his career that he’s accomplished a great deal, made good money and shocked a lot of boxing fans that thought he was little more than a crude domestic level slugger. Bellew still hasn’t beaten a top level cruiserweight, but that may change after Saturday if he can take Usyk’s scalp.

WBC emeritus champion Bellew is predicting a beat down for Usyk that will end with him losing all four of his belts. Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn sees him winning as well.

Bellew, 35, is ready to unseat Usyk, and he’s got a plan that he thinks will do the trick. Bellew isn’t saying what the plan is, but he feels that it’s got a chance of leading him to victory. If it doesn’t work, Bellew is ready to switch to a Plan-B, C, D or E if necessary.

“I’ll punch him in the face. There’ll be blood and pain and them four belts are coming home with me,” Bellew said to skysports.com.“This will be one of the best and most brutal fights you’ve ever seen.”

Usyk has a good chin, and he’s never been seriously hurt in any of his fights since he turned pro in 2013, and he’s been in with bigger punchers than Bellew. Usyk has taken the best shots from Joe Joyce, Artur Beterbiev, Murat Gassiev, Marco Huck and Mairis Briedis. All of those fighters are bigger punchers than Bellew, and many of them have accomplished more than he has in his career. The only one of that bunch hasn’t accomplished more than Bellew is Joyce, but he’s just starting out. He may wind up doing more than Bellew as well.

It bothers Bellew that Usyk has been putting out videos of him dancing on social media, as it gives the impression that he’s carefree and not worried at all about him on Saturday. This is par for the course for Usyk. At least Usyk hasn’t started singing to Bellew like he did during his face off with Johnny Muller. Usyk went on to stop the over-matched Muller in the 3rd round in their fight in 2015.

“I genuinely believe I will find a way to get past him,” Bellew said of Usyk. “The superstar [Usyk] is here, let him…do his crazy dances, there’s no pressure on me.”

Bellew is saying that he’s going to end his career on Saturday night after he knocks out Usyk. He’s never going to step foot inside a boxing ring again after he takes Usyk’s titles, and he wants to make sure he leaves the sport on top with a victory over the most talented fighter the cruiserweight has seen for years.