After convincingly defeating Murat Gassiev in the World Boxing Series tournament a few months ago undisputed world cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk could have easily moved up to heavyweight and secured some big fights, but instead he chose to have one last bout at 200lbs against former undefeated WBC cruiserweight king Tony Bellew.
At a press conference at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel in Manchester, it was officially announced that Usyk, 15-0-(11), will defend his WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO belts against Bellew, 32-2-1, (20 KOs) at Manchester Arena on November 10, live on Sky Sports Box Office in the UK and DAZN in the US.
Speaking about why he chose Bellew to fight next, Usyk said: “I’m sure it won’t be an easy fight for me and I’m really glad to come back to England, the country which gave me a chance to get some trophies already, that mean a lot in my life. I’m not thinking about Tony Bellew at this moment, I’m just concentrating on my training camp and thinking about how I will overcome all of the challenges ahead of me before the fight. I’m not a monster, I’m a white rabbit. I picked Tony Bellew because he is the man that takes the biggest challenges. He is not the usual type of fighter that will come, see how hard it is and quit. He will come to fight until the end. These are the kind of fights that the world wants to see.”
As usual, Bellew from Liverpool, was not stuck for words and explained why, after defeating former heavyweight champ David Haye, twice-decided to fight again
Speaking at the conference Bellew said: “Everyone asks why I was on my honeymoon and for one reason or another, I was stood there watching Oleksandr beat-up Murat Gassiev on a mobile phone. The fight stops and then he makes the ultimate sin and he says my name and it didn’t take long. As soon as he said my name I knew. When I was watching the phone, I knew.
“The world’s going to write me off and the more you write me off, the more I want to fight. We will see. I’m going up against the monster, the man who nobody really wants to fight. The man who just dismantles fighters and beats them easily. Make no mistake; he’s looking past me already. He might say he’s not, but he’s already asking Eddie ‘who am I going to fight at Heavyweight’. He thinks I’m arrogant. It is not arrogance that he sees. For the first time in his whole career he sees a man looking back at him that believes he can win and not a man that believes he’s just going to lose. I don’t just think or believe, I know. I’m going to find a way, I always do. You will have to nail me to the floor; you will have to nail me to the floor to keep me there.”
“I’ve got no disrespectful things to say to him, he’s an amazing champion. On November 10th he’s going to learn that I bring something different to everyone else. I have the one thing that he doesn’t have and that’s a punch that can switch lights off within the blink of an eye. One wrong step or one wrong manoeuvre and it’s over. Every time that I’m wrote off, I always find a way and on November 10th it’s going to be no different.”