They just won’t leave Tony Bellew alone...

I have to admit that I find him extremely entertaining. Love him or hate him, he's box-office.

My favorite Bellew line ever...

"What John Fury knows about boxing you can fit on the back of a class-A postage stamp and still have room for the Lord's Prayer."

 

He's a complete bellend. Absolutely zero self-awareness and everything about him is as fake as they come. The crocodile tears he used to put on, his stance on drug cheats unless you're with Matchroom and funniest of all, when he said Haye would turn up to the opening of an envelope, which is the most ironic thing in the world since he's now everywhere despite pleading to be left alone and claiming we'd never see him again.

 

He is entertaining but for me I’m laughing at him not with him.

 

You're not wrong.

 

Interesting fact. Bellew never beat a champion for a title. All his wins were vacant titles and his 3 loses came at the hands of defending champions. ( 2 of which he was stopped).

 

Alright, hear me out. Bellew’s fine when he’s on a leash — 30 secs of punditry, prepped question, job done. Knows the game, breaks down fights well enough, fair play.

But stick him on a podcast for an hour? Total car crash. Suddenly he’s Ali reincarnated, the Haye win becomes the fight of the century (forget Haye was half-crippled), and that “world champ” belt shines brighter every retelling — never mind it was vacant and he swerved Usyk and a unification like it was a tax bill. He bangs on about being “real” while contradicting himself every five minutes.

He’s done so many of these now he’s drowning in his own hype. Half the time he forgets what he said last week. It’s like he’s trapped in his own highlight reel — which is mad when you remember this is the same bloke who used to bang on about retiring quietly and going home to his wife and kids. Now he’s everywhere, chasing the fame he swore he never wanted.

Short-form Bellew = solid pundit. Long-form Bellew = walking meme.

 

Spot on, mate. That’s why I only give Bellew a 30-second pass — any longer and the mask slips. Eddie’s no mug; he’s got loyalists like Bellew shilling for the Matchroom script, spinning narratives to keep the hype train rolling. The spin’s so heavy now, plausible deniability’s gone, and even the casuals can smell and see through the bull****.

Exactly this. Bellew’s “analysis” is basically a loyalty test for his mates. Take his Sky Sports love-in after Chisora’s win over Joyce in July ‘24 — Tony’s out there calling him a “warrior” who’d school half the division, conveniently ignoring Del Boy was gassing and eating shots from a 39-year-old. Same energy as the Conor Benn eggs debacle — bending over backwards to defend the indefensible and then calling out Beterbiev after he bashed up his mate. If you’re one of his boys, there’s no such thing as losing or doing wrong.

 

Fair assessment

 

Not to mention Delboys on the juice. His career was finished 10 years ago and then he mad a miraculous turnaround

 

Agree with all of this. There's a reason Sky didn't touch him as a regular pundit (and they're no angels, look at Company Nelson who still gets a gig even now) - he's neither entertaining nor insightful beyond short obvious bursts as you say.

The most baffling thing is the BBC giving him a mainstream, non-boxing podcast, but then they seem to want to give anyone with a mouth a podcast these days so that's no surprise. As an aside I worked on a project at the BBC to expose more content to people as 80% of it is never seen by audiences after the first few days; I suggested "make less stuff" and that didn't go down well.

 

Well said, good post.

Bellew loves playing the “man of the people” card — just an old, punchy ex-boxer, shocked anyone even knows his name. Then, in the next breath, he’s hyping himself like he’s destined for the Hall of Fame. The contradiction’s wild. Sky sussed him out — they’ll give him a 30-second pundit spot, but even with Johnny Nelson still hanging around, Tony’s not got the legs for regular gigs.

Eddie’s playing puppet master, cycling through old pros and social media loudmouths to push his Matchroom script. Elon does it on X too — boost the loyalists, let their egos swell, then ditch them when they go rogue. That’s why Bellew and Parsons are in; Kugan got cocky post-Klitschko–Joshua, Froch went off-script, so Eddie moved them on. Bellew’s got “**** you” money but seems bored, so he’ll sing anyone’s tune for a cheque.

The BBC giving him a non-boxing podcast is mental — like putting Chisora on Gardener’s World. Media’s a mess now: they churn out so much content that, as you said, 80% of it’s ignored. No quality control, just saturation, and the ones left standing are usually the brown-nosers or lucky loudmouths, not the best — just survivor bias in action. Honestly, we were better off when there were four TV channels and Nokia 3310s. People have no idea what’s coming with AI — it’s going to flip the whole media game on its head, Matrix-style.

 

Yup, I agree. Problem is, that incredible turnaround — while making him millions — has also left him a lock-in for CTE. He seems addicted to the game and the spotlight when he should’ve gone out on a high, maybe after Price or Usyk, even Parker 1, but preferably after Takam.

 

Loves an exclamation mark does tony

 

Belles wearing a belt over his pin striped suit!! FML that picture was the same time period his mate big Pricey wore king kongs suit.