The Most Embarrassing Tony Bellew Moments Before His Nathan Cleverly Rematch

Tony Bellew has a chance to rewrite the script on Saturday night when he faces Nathan Cleverly for the second time at Liverpool's Echo Arena, with both boxers now competing at cruiserweight.

Three years ago at the same venue, Cleverly won a close fight by majority decision in a defence of his WBO light heavyweight title.

Bellew already had a disproportionate dislike for the Welshman then, calling him a "f-----g rat" at a midday press conference broadcast by Sky Sports News, which resulted in the channel reducing its tolerance for live boxing coverage.

After that fight, the pair embraced, and it seemed that the traditional post-fight respect would bring an end to their ill-feeling. That was not to be the case, as the festering wound of his defeat in the first fight reignited Bellew's ire for the understandably bemused Cleverly.

If the younger man could be criticised at that time as a somewhat undeserving world champion, it is hard to dislike him after he lost the belt to Sergey Kovalev and now has returned as a more humble and circumspect challenger at cruiserweight.

Bellew told Sporting Life that his animus for Cleverly was reanimated because, having been respectful in the ring after their fight, the Welshman claimed it had been an "easy fight" at the post-fight press conference.

However, the available footage does not support this claim, with Cleverly actually calling it, "a hard night's work for me." As Boxing Wales has noted, this makes Bellew's claim at best an "inaccuracy" and at worst a "cynical lie."

Whatever the root cause of Bellew's behaviour—his belligerence, inability to take any criticism or irrational hatred of the inoffensive Cleverly—he has made a strong case for himself as the most embarrassing man in British boxing. Here are some of his best, or worst, moments.

Here, Bellew attacks Cleverly for being a "plastic world champion" in his WBO title run—a claim which has some basis in fact.

That said, it was not the Welshman's fault that the previous champion Juergen Braehmer pulled out of their original title fight with an injury before being stripped of the belt due to inactivity, having spent time in prison.

A win over Braehmer would have given Cleverly true legitimacy, but the fight never quite came off, and Cleverly was upgraded from interim to full champion without facing the German.

But Bellew makes a fool of himself when he states that his own fight with Cleverly, "shouldn't have even been [for] a world title—that was no better than a domestic title [fight]." 

Because, of course, back in 2011 when Bellew had the chance to beat Cleverly for the WBO title, he was strangely quiet about the title's questionable global value.

And had he won, you can bet he would have paraded himself as a bona fide world champion. However—despite his claim in the video to have "achieved the same" as his rival—he lost and never held the belt that Cleverly would successfully defend on three further occasions.

The irony of his defeat to the "plastic world champion" was only amplified by this rant taking place whilst Bellew tightly hugged to his chest the WBO "International" cruiserweight title, which even the WBO does not recognise as a proper world championship belt.

Both Bellew and Cleverly's runs at light heavyweight came to destructive ends. Cleverly was knocked out in Round 4 by Sergey Kovalev for the WBO title, while Bellew suffered the same fate in Round 6 of a challenge to Adonis Stevenson's WBC belt.

HBO was building momentum for a fight between the two winners before Stevenson, who never sounded keen on the prospect of facing the Russian, decamped to rival broadcaster Showtime.

That seemed to precipitate a matchup between Stevenson and then IBF and WBA champion Bernard Hopkins, but tired of drawn-out negotiations with the Canadian, who is advised by Al Haymon, Hopkins instead jumped back to HBO to fight Kovalev.

At that time, it was inevitable that Bellew would pick Stevenson as the division kingpin, while Cleverly favoured Kovalev, the positions which make their defeats more respectable.

Bellew insisted that Hopkins had handpicked Kovalev as an opponent and, with full confidence in his position as the boxing sage of Merseyside, predicted a win for the veteran American. Meanwhile, Cleverly thought the Russian, "a different animal," would win.

The Welshman was proved correct in convincing fashion when Kovalev won every round on the judges' scorecards, scoring a knockdown along the way in the most comprehensive defeat of Hopkins' career.

Beyond the cringe-worthy scene of the two British fighters arguing over whose conqueror is better, now that Kovalev has three of the world titles to Stevenson's one, there is little doubt left as to who is the most feared man in that division.

This is not the first boxing platform to recognise the entertainment factor of the Scouser's foot-in-mouth moments. The Boxing Asylum podcast has long featured a segment called "Bellew of the Week."

It's a weekly award given to the most comical quote of the week from the world of boxing, and the eponymous Bellew is by far the most decorated winner in its history.

In the video above, IFL TV interviewer Kugan Cassius braves the wrath of the intemperate Liverpudlian by asking him about it.

Despite claiming never to have heard of it, Bellew seems aware that the podcast is usually around two hours long, is hosted by a Scottish presenter and that Eddie Hearn has been a recent guest.

Whilst initially trying to laugh it off by admitting he's said "some outlandish s--t," the cruiserweight can't resist a lengthy diatribe delivered straight down the camera lens to his online fan club.

He eventually tells the podcasters, "I don't give a s--t what you say"—which might be more believable had the very mention of them not just prompted him into a heated tirade.

In a beautiful circle-of-life moment, this is likely to secure Bellew another weekly award very soon.

That his surname is a near-homonym of "Bell--d of the Week" (or, if you are unkind, a synonym) only adds to the circumstance.

Elsewhere online, Check Hook Boxing has created Bellew Bingo, while YouTube's John Daniels presents a video for advanced viewers, The Tao of Bellew.

Here, Bellew appears on talkSPORT radio and goes off at boxing pundit Steve Bunce, refusing to answer his questions.

Given how easy it is to offend Bellew, it is hard to pinpoint exactly how Bunce fell foul of him, but in another video, the Scouser clarified that he felt Bunce "labelled me as someone who is fake," who "fought in a daze against Stevenson."

One can infer that the criticism came due to the contrast between Bellew's pre-fight antics and his actual performance on the night in his WBC title tilt.

Having labelled Stevenson "a midget" and promised to knock him out, Bellew turned up in belligerent form at the weigh-in, butting heads with the champion.

Then on fight night, the Englishman fought tentatively, keeping out of range and only offering a low punch output before the Canadian caught up with him, stopping him in Round 6.

Bellew protests that "I tried to fight to a game plan," and maybe this was indeed his best strategy to win the fight.

That doesn't change the fact that it is embarrassing to promise a big, exciting KO win and then to fail to engage much with your opponent or throw many power punches before getting knocked out.

Just as it is embarrassing for a boxer to agree to appear on a sports radio show and then refuse to answer questions from the station's boxing pundit because he criticised you once.

Here, Bellew makes his audition for the WWE, but unfortunately he forgot to rehearse his act beforehand with trainer Dave Coldwell.

After knocking out trial-horse opponent Julio Cesar Dos Santos, the Scouser intermediately turns his attention to his rival, kicking an advertising hoarding at him before motioning at him with his arm.

As the slanging match escalates, Bellew raises the stakes further by coming through the ropes towards the Welshman. Unprepared for an actual physical confrontation, he waits for Coldwell to intervene.

But he doesn't. So Bellew just backs off limply and returns through the ropes. And then continues to shout.

Even if Coldwell had gotten the memo and held Bellew back, it would hardly have been convincing given that the former flyweight is literally a foot shorter than his charge.

It can be said that Nathan Cleverly did incite the situation by wearing a baseball cap backwards throughout, as well as a sleeveless hoodie, seemingly without irony.

This currently stands as Bellew's most embarrassing moment, but given that we still have the weigh-in to go—a Bellew favourite—and that he is capable of foolishness both in victory and defeat, who knows how long this will keep the top spot.