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Boxing

02nd Apr 2023

Tony Bellew almost comes to blows with trainer after Anthony Joshua fight

Lee Costello

“I’ll f***ing meet you with a right hand.”

Tony Bellew almost came to blows with Jermaine Franklin’s trainer after Anthony Joshua’s unanimous victory last night in the 02 Arena.

The final bell had went but Joshua and Franklin got into a bit of a tussle after the fight, and the American’s corner team got involved.

Bellew took issue with this and got into a confrontation with the corner team and had to be restrained from entering the ring.

“You can’t have a trainer going for a boxer,” Bellew told IFL TV after the incident. “So I said ‘hey lad what are you playing at?’ And he’s said something and I’ve said ‘f*** it, let’s do it then.

Bellew Joshua

“I’ll f***ing meet you with a right hand… His mate apologised to me and I said ‘you can’t’. I didn’t want the trouble with him but I just said ‘what are you doing?’ And he went ‘what are you going to do?

“I said ‘what the f*** are you going to do’ so I’ve stepped down like ‘let’s go’. I stepped aside so I thought he was going to step to me and a right hand was going to meet him.

“But he didn’t get close enough so what do you want me to do? I was just trying to tell the man that you can’t approach a fighter, so you can’t do that. It’s down to the fighters and if Jermaine and [Anthony] are having a little tussle…”

Bellew Joshua

Joshua won the fight comfortably but many were expecting the Englishman to knock his opponent out.

“Inside the ring, it is a different energy so I apologise to those watching. I respect Jermaine, Eddie [Hearn], thank you for this opportunity. Fans, thank you as well,’ he added.

“It was important to win. Jermaine has a good duck and dive style, somebody else from Britain will probably knock him out; respect to him, he did well.

“I should have knocked him out but it is done. On to the next. He is here to prove himself, not roll over. I wish I could have knocked him out.”

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