Tony Bellew was involved in a post-fight altercation with Jermaine Franklin’s trainer Lorenzo Reynolds moments after the American’s clash with Anthony Joshua last night.
The bizarre altercation was started after Reynolds attempted to accost AJ after the bell had rung. This then led to the trainer having an altercation with Bellew, working for DAZN, before the BBC’s Steve Bunce was forced to intervene before it could develop into something sinister.
Carl Froch, a vehement criticiser of Joshua, was spotted ‘living his best life’ as footage emerged of his decision to retrieve his phone and record the altercation.
Froch has been vocal on his criticism of AJ, claiming he has never been the same since Andy Ruiz Jr beat him and ‘took a part of his soul.’
Twitter was very active following the footage, with one user observing: “The warrior that is Carl Froch sits there and films it while Steve Bunce is the one to run over to try to calm things down. Well done, Carl.”
Another spoke directly of Bunce’s heroism: “Steve Bunce, legend.”
During the altercation, the veteran journalist Bunce could be seen unleashing his ‘inner boxer’ as he showed impressive strength to withhold Bellew. The footage shows visible attempts from Bunce to calm the Evertonian down.
In a fight where stakes were high, Bellew slammed Reynold’s behaviour in the aftermath and revealed he threatened to “meet him with a right hand” after he grabbed Joshua post-fight.
What has Tony Bellew said about the post-fight antics?
“You can’t have a trainer going for a boxer,” the former boxer told iFL TV after the incident.
“So I said ‘hey lad what are you playing at?’ And he’s said something, and I’ve said ‘f*** it, let’s do it then. I’ll f***** meet you with a right hand’… his mate apologised to me and I said ‘you can’t’.
“I didn’t want the trouble with him, but I just said ‘what are you doing?’ And he went ‘what are you going to do?’
“I said ‘what the f*** are you going to do’ so I’ve stepped down like ‘let’s go’. I stepped aside, so I thought he was going to step to me and a right hand was going to meet him.
“But he didn’t get close enough, so what do you want me to do? I was just trying to tell the man that you can’t approach a fighter, so you can’t do that.
“It’s down to the fighters and if Jermaine and [Anthony] are having a little tussle…”