Tony Bellew: Nothing Made Me Happy Until I Found This | E156

Tony Bellew tells Stephen Bartlett how being a product of his Liverpool environment, an absent father, and defending his gay younger brother shaped him into a fighter. He traces his amateur and professional career, the mentor Jimmy Albertina who predicted he'd be a champion, and the brutal financial reality of boxing where he wasn't a millionaire until the 2017 David Haye fight. The emotional core is grief: the loss of his brother-in-law Ashley devastated his wife Rachel and Bellew, who crashed into depression while training in isolation. Despite achieving his lifelong dream of fighting at Goodison Park and becoming financially secure, Bellew confronts the anti-climax of success and his ongoing, possibly impossible, search for what would make him feel complete.

• Bellew reveals his father left home when he was 10 after having an affair, and went to prison twice.
  00:02:34
• He shares for the first time crashing his mum's car into a taxi and going missing for weeks after defending his brother.
  00:07:12
• His father went to prison for leaving a threatening voicemail to recover 10,000 pounds stolen from his pub.
  00:20:51
• Jimmy Albertina secretly believed Bellew would be a champion but never praised him to his face, only revealed after Jimmy died.
  00:32:42
• Despite being British, Commonwealth, European and world champion, Bellew wasn't a millionaire until the David Haye fight.
  00:41:36
• Bellew turned down 1.6 million pounds cash offered for the Haye fight to honor a handshake deal with Eddie Hearn.
  00:54:38
• His brother-in-law Ashley died in Mexico while on holiday to be a best man, never coming home.
  01:02:21
• Bellew realized he was struggling and depressed only after going on the show SAS: Who Dares Wins.
  01:08:06

• Growing up mixed-race in Cornwall, Bartlett would tell people he was half black within minutes of meeting them as a protective shield.
  00:11:54
• Bellew knocked out opponents in semi-contact kickboxing as a child and was disqualified for being too powerful.
  00:17:39
• Bellew won a national title under-10 novice final by knocking his opponent unconscious in six seconds, still a record.
  00:35:19
• Three boys expelled from Bellew's school became a Leeds University professor, a top sports journalist, and Bellew the world champion.
  00:27:06
• After snapping his hand, Bellew couldn't afford the operation after spending his 6,000 pound fight purse on Christmas for his kids.
  00:42:40
• Bellew sparred David Haye years earlier and was hit so hard with 16oz gloves it 'made me bark like a donkey'.
  00:47:23
• Bellew drove to a cash machine to physically see the zeros when his multi-millionaire payout landed, then felt anti-climax.
  00:55:40
• Bartlett resolved an argument with his partner using a technique from The Chimp Paradox: repeating back what she said so the 'chimp' feels heard.
  00:59:17
• Bellew stayed calm about nearly missing a Virgin flight, telling staff he never stresses over things he cannot change.
  01:13:17
• Bellew describes crying himself to sleep alone in a Holiday Inn Express in Sheffield during training camps after Ashley's death.
  01:05:31

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