Bellew: Usyk fight has to happen this year

Tony Bellew says this year is his last in boxing.

We already know Eddie Hearn is happy about early negotiations for a fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tony Bellew, and now we can say that Bellew is seeming pretty happy himself.

Bellew is confident the fight will be made, saying it “looks inevitable,” but says it has to happen by the end of 2018, as he won’t fight beyond this year.

“It has to be done this year, this year is my last year in the sport. I won’t be fighting in 2019, I’m done at the end of this year. I should’ve been done in March this year.”

Bellew says his plan was to beat Haye again in December 2017, but that fight was delayed. He then planned to face Joseph Parker for the WBO heavyweight title, a fight he feels he would have won. Instead, Bellew fought Haye again in March, and Parker lost to Anthony Joshua that same month.

Hopefully, we see the fight. Bellew will be moving back down to cruiserweight to try and take all four belts from Usyk if it does. As he says, Bellew wants to “dare to be great,” and fight for all the marbles instead of just a fight where Usyk comes up to heavyweight with nothing significant on the line.