Tony Bellew has accused light-heavyweight rival Nathan Cleverly
of taking easy fights in defence of his WBO title.
Bellew, who lost narrowly to Cleverly last October, faces
Norwich's big hitting Danny McIntosh in Liverpool on April 13 and
believes that is a much tougher fight than the Welshman's upcoming
defence against Robin Krasniqi and his last outing against little
known American Tommy Karpency.
"I'm the one coming off the loss, but I'm fighting a better
opponent than him," said Bellew. "Anyone in the game knows that a
former European champion is a threat and a McIntosh is a good boxer
because his credentials don't lie.
"Cleverly beat McIntosh three
years ago but they were both novices then and they have both come
on miles since then. I'm fighting the best version of McIntosh,
he's got more experience now and he's travelled away from home to
win the title, stopping Thierry Karl in his backyard. He's got a
lot of ambition and a lot left to offer, and I'm not in the game to
knock over jobsworths.
"If I'd won the Cleverly fight, I
would not have been fighting Tommy Karpency. Everybody knows that I
would have been thrust into a rematch and I would have been happy
with that, so why not one for me?
"But I don't want to fight the
Tommy Karpency's of this world, he's a tough guy and I've got lots
of respect for that, but I wouldn't want to kill myself in training
camps to beat some guy up who is just going to put his hands in
front of his head for 12 rounds."
Bellew added that he's hoping for
a shot at the European champion if he prevails against
McIntosh.
29/03/2012 23:38:01