Tony Bellew always keeps abreast of the boxing scene at all levels and someone he has tipped for the top is in action this weekend.
Bellew retired back in 2018 after a superb career that saw him become a cruiserweight world champion. He did it in perfect style with an impressive KO victory over Ilunga Makabu at the home of his beloved Everton FC at their old stadium Goodison Park.
Since then he has remained a popular pundit and commentator and has recently been hugely impressed with fast-rising star Moses Itauma, who he thinks could beat everyone in the division bar Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. Bellew also backs Nick Ball for big things, but it is another young Brit who he feels will be ‘the face of boxing.’
In a post on X, the Liverpool man has thrown his weight behind newly emerging female talent, Tiah Ayton.
“I said in an interview two weeks ago that this girl is going to be the face of boxing! I’ve not seen someone like her in her first pro fight ever!”
Ayton is a 19-year-old former kickboxer and Muay Thai world champion who also went on to win the gold medal at the inaugural World Boxing Under-19 championships in Colorado last November.
Since then she has signed a professional boxing contract with Matchroom after impressing CEO Eddie Hearn while sparring with the then WBC female featherweight champion Skye Nicolson, and she has since had two fights.
The first was in June and saw her win by TKO over Sara Orszagi in Birmingham, then she backed that up with the same method of victory over Lydie Bialic in the fourth round back in September.
She now returns on Friday evening when she takes on Argentina’s Laura Belen Valdebenito at York Hall in London.
