During Tony Bellew’s career, he developed a habit of calling out fighters who were a lot higher up the pecking order than him but somewhat down on their luck. A perfect example would be the time that the plucky Liverpudlian declared to the world that he would beat Tyson Fury if given the chance. Bellew’s statements were opportunistic at best and downright inappropriate at worst given that Fury weighed 29 stone and was battling demons that threatened to end his career.
We now know this fight will never happen as Bellew would go on to retire in November 2018 after being brutally knocked out by Oleksandr Usyk, a fighter who was in his prime. Regardless of the fashion that the 37-year-old’s career ended in, for all of Bellew’s trash talk towards Fury a few years ago, you have to ask yourself what would happen if he was stood in the same ring with this new and improved Tyson Fury that was able to pulverize Deontay Wilder without breaking much of a sweat?
The same Tyson Fury who now finds himself as the overwhelming favourite to hold all the heavyweight belts in world boxing after being priced at 1/2 in the boxing betting to beat Anthony Joshua. It seems pretty straightforward that Fury would defeat Bellew with the utmost ease which is why the 37-year-old would never have dreamed of taking the fight once Fury was back in the gym.
This does bring us onto an extremely significant point and that is, it has to be said that Bellew didn’t make it a habit of accepting fights with anyone who was at the top of their game.
Instead, Bellew’s MO was for a large part of his later career centered around picking off the stars of yesteryear. Indeed, the 37-year-old received a lot of praise for the way that he dealt with the veteran David Haye during their fights, but in hindsight, Haye was the perfect opponent for Bellew. There’s no doubt that the Londoner was aging and a shadow of the boxer that once ruled the heavyweight division.
For all of Bellew’s apparent self-serving antics, you have to admire the way he was able to generate a massive payday whilst minimizing his chances of actually getting hurt. That was at least until he called out Andy Ruiz Jr from the comfort of retirement.
Bellew obviously thinks that Ruiz falls into the same category as David Haye or a Tyson Fury who has spent a year on a beach in Marbella, easy work, and ready for the taking. That just isn’t the case with Andy Ruiz Jr though, the 30-year-old American is one of the most dangerous men in the division and far from the back end of his career. There have of course been setbacks over the last year as we will delve into now, but none of them indicate that the American is all of a sudden on a slippery slope to retirement.
Indeed, Ruiz may have lost to Anthony Joshua in December 2019 and been largely inactive since then, but that won’t stop him from returning to his previous best after getting back to work in a grueling training camp. He is after all in the prime of his career and has never relied too heavily on his physique to win him fights. In all likelihood, until the day that Ruiz retires, he will always carry a bit of excess weight on him but it is the speed of his hands that makes him the fighter he is.
Those hands will be back to their lightning best by the time he gets in the ring again and should it be to face Tony Bellew, you can easily picture a scenario where the Liverpudlian is overrun shortly after the first bell. Is it worth it for a man like Bellew who has secured his financial future and is nowadays a much-admired family man? The answer seems obvious but boxers are a different breed who have a penchant for comebacks.
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