Liverpool boxer Tony Bellew has vowed to inflict a “world of pain” on opponent Robert Bolonti as he continues his pursuit of a world title fight at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham on Saturday night.
Bellew’s bout with his Argentine counterpart for the vacant WBC Silver is the chief support fight to Carl Froch’s IBF super-middleweight defence against Yusuf Mack.
A 19th career win for the 29-year-old will improve his WBC light-heavyweight ranking and increase his chance of a world title shot, as it could take him within one fight of becoming the mandatory challenger to current champion Chad Dawson.
On Monday Bellew tweeted: “Got home to good news! Bolonti is in the UK and has brought his WBC ranking with him! One thing is sure, he’ll leave without it!”The 33-year-old Bolonti boasts a record of 30 wins, with 19 of those by way of knock out and only one defeat to his name.
However, this is the first time the Argentinian will have fought outside of his home country.
Bolonti spoke via an interpreter at the pre-fight press conference to say: “I’m very happy to be here and we’re glad Eddie has given us the opportunity to come here and show what we’re made of. We have trained very hard for this fight and hopefully we’ll get a result.
“We hope that Tony Bellew has trained as hard as we have because we’d like to see a good fight and hopefully we’ll take the belt back home with us.”
Bellew responded in typical feisty fashion. He said: “I’m happy for the opportunity. I’ve worked really hard, preparations gone great and that belt’s not going anywhere, it’s staying here. There’s just no chance I can lose this fight and he’s in for a world of pain.
“There’s something that he’s never experienced before is going in with someone who’s live and vicious and nasty and I’m going to do some serious damage. Simple as that.”
Proud Scouser and Everton fan Bellew stopped Edison Miranda in the ninth round of his last fight back in September.