Tony Bellew Lives His Dream and Wins World Title at Goodison Park

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Liverpool's Tony "Bomber" Bellew realised his dream on Sunday night when he defeated Congolese southpaw Ilunga Makabu with a devastating third-round knockout at Goodison Park—the home of his beloved Everton Football Club—to win the vacant WBC cruiserweight title.

Things weren't exactly plain sailing for the proud scouser. After having the best of the opening stanza, Makabu threw a hellacious left hand to knock Bellew down, shattering his nose in the process.

Roared on by the 15,000 Toffees (Everton fans) in attendance, Bellew rose to hear the bell signalling the end of round one. After that, you would be forgiven for forgetting how Bellew had his own bell rung as he took the center of the ring to re-assert himself as soon as the second round begun, peppering Makabu with some nice set-up shots mixed in with big power punches.

That power eventually told. In the third round, Bellew landed a crisp left hook and a right uppercut to send Makabu reeling against the ropes, before landing a barrage of blows, punctuated with a left hook, which saw Makabu crash to the canvas.

While the cruiserweight division is renowned for being a fairly uncompetitive division, the story which unfolded on Sunday night would look far-fetched upon first glance.

It was Bellew's third attempt at winning a world title, having lost to Welshman Nathan Cleverly for his WBO light-heavyweight title by decision and falling to Canadian Adonis Stevenson with a TKO loss for his WBC, Lineal and The Ring light-heavyweight championships.

The above angle was always an inevitable talking point. But, Sunday night was a rare case of life imitating art in a sporting sense. Bellew co-starred in the latest Rocky film instalment "Creed", appearing as the fictional world light-heavyweight champion "Pretty" Ricky Conlan—the antagonist of Adonis "Donny" Creed, the son of the late Apollo.

The much-lauded film's crescendo sees Creed take on Conlon in his foe's backyard—Goodison Park—and ultimately fail to beat the Englishman on enemy territory. On Sunday night, Bellew got to perform at the home of his favourite football team for real. That fictional title fight, and resultant victory, materialized in front of our very eyes as it did on the big screen.

Talking to the BBC, Bellew was clearly in dreamland as he doubted his own ability to get the job done. Bomber was the underdog according to British bookmakers given Makabu's impressive record of 18 KO wins from his 19 victories. But, he was not willing to let his people down.

"I honestly never even dreamed it was possible, the movies were the closest I thought I'd get. I usually dream of flattening people, but even in my dreams I couldn't figure out a way to beat this fella. But I've done it, won a world title against all the odds in front of the Gwladys Street Stand at Everton, where I had my season ticket - row KK. It's no longer about dreams, although it still seems like one.

"I've given everything to boxing, my whole life. It's not a sport to me, that was my life on the line. There was no way I was losing at Goodison Park. If I'd lost, I wouldn't have been able to show my face here again. So when I went down, all I was thinking was: 'When I get up, I'm going to take your head off'."

Bellew was worth his weight in world title gold on Sunday night with some great soundbites and some intriguing call-outs. Never one to mince his words, Bellew called out Russian WBA and IBF champion Denis Lebedev before calling out former world cruiserweight titleholder David Haye. He may be competing as a heavyweight these days, but Haye responded in kind as you'd expect.

As a result of Sunday night's fights, Bellew has become the UK's latest world champion—joining 12 others. These include the likes of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, James DeGale, Billy Joe Saunders, Liam Smith, Kell Brook, Ricky Burns, Anthony Crolla, Terry Flanagan, Lee Selby, Jamie McDonnell and Lee Haskins.

Sunday night was Bellew's night—an ode to his adoring Evertonians in attendance. It wasn't a night for Britain, nor was it a show in aid of a blockbuster film. Bomber's lengthy wait for world title gold has been ended in some style.