‘He’s gonna die’ – Tony Bellew came ‘close to a breakdown’ during horrific weight cut for biggest fight of his life

Tony Bellew went through hell when he challenged Adonis Stevenson for his WBC light heavyweight world title.

By 2013, the Scouser was coming to the end of his time in the 175lb division, but had earned a second chance at the crown.

Two years prior, Bellew lost a majority decision to Nathan Cleverly while fighting for his WBO belt.

After five fights to rebuild, he secured the chance to face Stevenson, a feared power puncher who would ultimately reign for five years.

The fight took place in the house of the Canadian champion and it seemed as if everything was against the challenger.

Bellew especially felt this way when he had to make weight, knowing full well that he should have already left the light heavyweight ranks.

Bellew recalled on talkSPORT Drive: “When I fought Adonis Stevenson, losing the last 5 pounds absolutely crucified me.

“My body no longer allowed me to lose weight.

“I ran on a treadmill for an hour, I didn’t lose weight in a tracksuit.

“I went to the sauna and I didn’t lose any weight.

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“At the time, my nutritionist told me, ‘Your body is now at a standstill. »The only way to gain those 5 pounds back is to remove them from your body.

“And it was literally with a bag full of salt and a bath so hot it burned my skin. My butt was literally red hot, burned to the core.

“And I had to sit in that bath for 25 minutes. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to having a breakdown.

“I was watching Kevin Hart on my iPad, laughing at his jokes and crying.

“It was the day before the biggest fight of my life. I can’t explain it to you.

“My friend who was with me was saying, ‘He needs to get out of this bath, he’s going to die in this bath,’ because he was watching me do that.

“And my trainer was standing there and saying, ‘He’s got to make weight, it’s for the WBC title, he’s got to make weight.’

“That was the argument going on in the room at the time. It was horrible. I lost 5 pounds in that bath in 25 minutes.”

Bellew actually managed to make the 175-pound limit at Friday’s weigh-in, but that didn’t matter because he was weakened in the process.

Stevenson knocked him out in six rounds the following evening.

“It wasn’t good,” Bellew admitted, “Because I got in the ring the next night and Adonis Stevenson knocked me out.

“I’m not going to lie, I had about 30 good seconds in that fight and it wasn’t enough.”

After the loss, Bellew eventually moved up to cruiserweight and never looked back as he began a ten-fight winning streak that defined his career.

He won the WBC world title in his new division in 2016, then moved up to heavyweight for two wins over David Haye.

In November 2018, Bellew returned to cruiserweight for the final fight of his career, in which he was knocked out by Oleksandr Usyk.

It wasn’t until December 2018, after Bellew’s retirement, that Stevenson was finally dethroned by Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

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