Former world champion boxer turns down I'm A Celebrity - Daily News

Former world champion boxer turns down I'm A Celebrity - Daily News

#Former, #world, #champion, #boxer, #turns, #downI, #ACelebrity  Tony Bellew has turned down the opportunity to appear on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.  The Liverpudlian retired from boxing after losing to world cruisereight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night.  And he plans to shun the limelight having made £15million from the final three fights of his career.   “I'm sorry to disappoint you but I’ve already refused. In all honesty, I’m not going to lie, fame isn't really suited to me and my kind of lifestyle," he told talkSPORT .  “I'm going to try and disappear. I've got three or four interviews left to do this week, and this will be one of the final ones, and then I just want to disappear and live a normal life.  “I've had a fantastic journey but on Saturday night Tony Bellew died. Tony Bellew is someone who fights in a boxing ring and my name is Anthony Bellew.  “I've worked 20 years at making Tony Bellew into this monster… it’s over now and I can’t wait to just live a normal life."  There was to be no fairytale finish for the brave Bellew, who was put down with a crisp right jab, left hook combination before referee Terry O'Connor waved the count two minutes into the eighth round.  An emotional but magnanimous Bellew said afterwards: "I just tried to take that one final step and, you know what, I wasn't good enough but I'll be able to live with that forever.  "If I wouldn't have taken this fight, that would have killed me because I would have always been 'was I good enough?' The fact of the matter is I just wasn't, he's better than me.  "Part of me feels like I've failed again but it's boxing at the highest level so you've got to accept you can't always win.  "If I'm being honest I got tired for the first time in my entire career. I don't know why or how it happened but I just got tired. He's brilliant, I have no bad words to say about Oleksandr, I only wish him well.  "I went out against the best cruiserweight and he can lay claim to being the greatest cruiserweight of all time.  "No excuses, I gave it everything I had, I couldn't have prepared any better. My career is over. I've been doing this for 20 years."

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