NO HALF MEASURES

Michael Weston meets Tony Bellew to hear about life in and out of the ring and find out what golf means to him now he's hung up his gloves

- Michael Weston

Tony Bellew has his back turned. For the moment, he’s focused solely on what’s happening outside. “What a shot that is,” he says, totally transfixed as one of his fellow club members at Southport & Ainsdale strikes an iron into the par-3 1st hole – never an easy shot, especially in front of a watching clubhouse. This game has Bellew gripped.

In case you’re not familiar with the name, Tony ‘Bomber’ Bellew is the former British, Commonwealth, European and World Cruiserweight Champion. Maybe you’ve seen him without the gloves on, for he’s appeared in a couple of movies (Creed and Creed III), as well as television programmes including A League Of Their Own and SAS: Who Dares Wins. Boxing, punditry, acting, they’re all passions of his, but how did someone growing up in a challenging part of Liverpool become addicted to what he viewed as a “rich man’s sport”?

It certainly didn’t happen in the same way as it does for a lot of people: plastic clubs aged two, junior member at the local club aged seven and rounds with the family on summer holidays. “We certainly weren’t that [rich],” says Bellew, whose life has featured many twists and turns.

Growing up on the tough streets of Toxteth and Wavertree, he had a choice to make: a life getting into trouble or the straight and narrow, one that didn’t involve going to prison. It wasn’t his fists that saved him, as such, but his work ethic. Talent only gets you so far. For Bellew, there is no substitute for hard work.