Friday 24 November 2017 11:58, UK
Tony Bellew will carefully consider whether David Haye, Tyson Fury or Joseph Parker feature in plans for 2018, says trainer David Coldwell.
A successful year for Bellew ended in bitter disappointment when Haye pulled out of their scheduled rematch this month, meaning the Merseysider must reassess options for his next fight.
Coldwell guided Bellew to a world title, and then victory over Haye in March, so is the perfect man to run the rule over a shortlist of opponents...
I genuinely don't know [about rescheduled rematch]. These sort of questions are being asked when we are only a few days into finding out the fight is not being made. It's very difficult to have answers, because things are still being worked on in the background.
Yes, he wants to fight David Haye and put that to bed, but then also Haye has pulled out of four fights in his last eight. Is he going to pull out again? If we wait until April for Haye and then he pulls out again, we're waiting even longer.
To go straight into a Haye fight, again just my opinion, I think it's very risky.
Tony's has got the momentum and needs to be in big fights, so whether or not they put an interim fight in the deal, where let's see if David Haye can have a fight first, and then Tony goes off and does whatever fight he wants to take. But to go straight into a Haye fight, again just my opinion, I think it's very risky.
To fight Fury you need preparation. You need a camp specifically to fight Tyson Fury and to prepare for him, because he possesses tools like being effective in southpaw or orthodox, very, very tricky, long, uses his range really well and he's massive.
Is he the most fluent, aesthetic looking boxer that you'll see? No, he's not, but is he effective at what he does? Yes he is. That's a very, very difficult fight. It's a huge challenge, but someone like Tony Bellew, if that was made, he's the kind of guy that would thrive off that challenge.
Dillian is a great talker, he's a good fighter, but he's not done anything on that sort of level where Tony feels there is a lot to gain. Tony has been in the game a long, long time, and it's about fights that are going to excite him and give him some sort of reward for going through everything.
There is everything to gain for Dillian, because he's chasing big fights. Nothing seems to be happening for Dillian and he wants it. He's training all the time and getting better as a fighter, but unfortunately for one reason or another, he's not landing the big fights. He needs the fight to break him out there and obviously he is targeting Bellew, because Bellew is that name.
To fight again, it's got to be something that Tony can get his teeth into, which the Haye rematch was, and with Joseph Parker, beating him you become a heavyweight champion.
Parker is strong and fit. He's not the biggest puncher, but he puts them together nice and sharp. His feet aren't the best, you can hit him, and he's not a giant. At 17 and-a-half stone he's a big lump, but he's only an inch taller than Tony. He is not the most dangerous of the heavyweights out there.
This is me talking, my opinion, not Tony's opinions. Tony would probably fight absolutely anybody. The problem is with Joshua, he sees him as a mate. He likes Anthony, and there is absolutely no vibe there that he will ever go there.
He's already had life-changing money. I don't see any situation where Tony would fight Anthony Joshua, I genuinely don't, but that's just me speaking. You would have to speak to Eddie Hearn and you would have to speak to Tony. He's been nothing but supportive and positive towards Joshua's career. I don't' see anything there at all.
