Boxing
Bellew goes all in with stunning outburst on leading British trainer regarding his own career and Dubois
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Tony Bellew has replied to Don Charles after the leading trainer insisted that the former cruiserweight world champion has a personal issue with current WBO heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois .
In his role as a pundit on the sport, Bellew has offered his opinions on many fighters, but when observing Dubois, the Liverpool man has referenced his losses to Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk.
In those performances, Dubois was widely criticised by the boxing community for failing to go out on his shield despite rebounding from those setbacks to now be world champion.
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Speaking to the Daily Mail, Charles, like a father figure to Dubois, urged Bellew to explain his reasons for pointing out Dubois’ flaws and he even hit out at Bellew’s career, most notably his 2013 loss to Adonis Stevenson.
Answering back to Charles, Bellew made it clear he had praised Dubois as well as pointing out his weaknesses and he also used examples from his time in boxing to dismiss Charles’s claims.
“Don, you've seen me get off the floor after heavy punches — face-first knockdowns against the likes of Ovill McKenzie, dropped heavily in the world title fight against Ilunga Makabu, fighters with serious knockout ratios. I climb up, Don,” said Bellew when speaking to MrRaffle.com.
“You've seen me flat on my back against Oleksandr Usyk — I was up at the count of eight asking to fight on, looking at the clouds because I didn't know where I was, but asking to fight on.
“Your man Daniel Dubois stays on his backside, watches the ref count to ten, then jumps up and walks back to his corner. Don, I didn't know where I was when I got up at the count of eight.
“So, if you want to compare situations, I'm not making this personal — you are. That's my response to your allegations. I think the world of you, Don. You're a gentleman. But don't make it about me and you, because it's not."
Bellew added, “I have never personally attacked Daniel. I've said he's quit in fights. Don, I can't rewrite history. He quit. He didn't quit against Fabio Wardley, and I've given him all the credit in the world for that.
“I actually defended him on fight week — said it was disgusting that people were questioning his intellect and boxing knowledge before the fight. He's there to fight, not to be a boxing historian. I stood up for him.”
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