Tony Bellew has admitted losing his temper with Martin Bakole ahead of his 2016 world title fight with Junior Makabu.
Approaching the biggest fight of his career at that point, Bellew was in fight mode all week before finally becoming world champion with an emphatic third round knockout at Goodison Park.
Bakole, now a serious contender at heavyweight thanks to his recent destruction of Carlos Takam, had been supporting Makabu, his brother, but his presence irked Bellew.
Speaking about the incident over seven years later, Bellew has revealed what went down between himself and Bakole.
“I had an encounter with his brother in the Hilton hotel in the lobby,” said Bellew when speaking to A Dream Achieved podcast.
“He said something to me, and I said why are you looking at me like you’re going to f—g do something and he went ‘I’ll do whatever I want’ and I said, ‘well do it then you stupid big dope.’
“He said ‘do you know who I am? I’m a heavyweight’ and I said, ‘I’m a f—g heavyweight right now too and I’ll f—g put you out.’”