Tony Bellew does not agree with Tyson Fury's (20-0-1, 21 KOs) evaluation of Anthony Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) ahead of their expected pair of world heavyweight championship unification bouts in 2021.
Fury and Joshua have agreed to the financial terms for a pair of fights in the future but must first get past Deontay Wilder and Kubrat Pulev in their respective fights that will tentatively take place before Christmas.
Nonetheless, the unbeaten Fury has wasted no time in the verbal jousting stakes.
When asked about Joshua, Fury recently said: “I think he’s a third-tier heavyweight.
"I think there’s me and Wilder that can easily beat them all. And I do put Oleksandr Usyk up there too because he’s a fleet-footed southpaw.
“But Joshua, I’ve said it many times, all these other heavyweights can beat each other, as we’ve seen.”
Bellew, a former world cruiserweight champion whose last fight before retirement was a defeat to Usyk, told White and Jordan on talkSPORT: “He’s talking nonsense when he says that it’s only between him and Wilder, and everybody else is on another level.
“Let’s just get something straight – Deontay Wilder was desperate against Luis Ortiz and Luis Ortiz is about 95 years old. It’s ridiculous what he’s saying, we all know Deontay Wilder is a one-trick pony. Do not get me wrong, it’s a hell of a trick. If the trick lands, you wake up in an ambulance.
“But make no mistake about it, Anthony Joshua is far better than Deontay Wilder. Far better.
“Everything that he does is better. The only attribute that Deontay Wilder has over all these guys is one-punch power. But there’s no point in having that one-punch power if he hasn’t got the skillset to land it, and he clearly hasn’t. It’s bravado coming from Tyson.
“I’ve got all respect for Tyson Fury, he is right now the number one heavyweight in the world, no one can dispute that. But make no mistake, Anthony Joshua is only getting better.
“This is a guy with limited experience who achieved everything at the speed of light. Olympic champion, world champion, unified world champion. Every single person he’s faced, he’s beaten.”
Bellew went on to assert that there are certainly a few heavyweight fighters that can put the first mark in Fury's loss column, but Joshua is the one with the best chance of pulling off the feat.
“Styles make fights," he continued. “It’s crazy the way the heavyweight division’s working at the minute because I think there’s a couple of guys who do have a chance against Tyson Fury.
“I think AJ does beat Tyson Fury, but he’s got six rounds to do it. If it goes past six rounds, I don’t think he beats Tyson Fury.
“To beat Tyson Fury you’ve got to be willing to jump on him and not care what’s coming back. And I believe the only heavyweight in the world with the skillset, the speed and the accuracy who can do it is AJ.
“On the other hand, when it comes to matching other fighters up – I may think AJ beats Fury, but I think AJ has real problems going in with Dillian Whyte in a rematch because styles make fights.
“Dillian will put pressure on AJ and he’ll probably trade. Because it’s so fierce between them with the rivalry and the domestic stuff, he’d probably get caught up in a war and that’d be wrong.
“If AJ went in and boxed against someone like Dillian Whyte, he gives himself a much better opportunity. But when emotions take part, things get out of hand, you get caught up in the moment and you start trading.
“I think for AJ going in against Fury, he doesn’t get involved with any of that. He just literally jumps on him and throws and lets the punches go.
“AJ’s the fastest combination puncher in the heavyweight division since Mike Tyson. No-one throws punches in combinations with the speed, power and ferocity that AJ does.
“As I said, he’s got six rounds to do it against Fury. If them six rounds go past then I don’t see anybody beating Tyson Fury after six rounds.”