Tony Bellew’s friend and former heavyweight boxer Joe Egan has tipped the I’m A Celebrity.. Get Me Out Of Here! late entry to easily cope with conditions in camp.
Joe, 57, knows Tony from the boxing scene and says he has got what it takes to last into the final rounds of the ITV series this year. He said: “Tony in the jungle, listen, whatever creatures are in that jungle will literally be scared of Tony Bellew! Spiders or snakes will be nothing compared to the men he’s had to fight. He’s a former world champion, and if anyone deserves a break after boxing, he deserves that break in a TV career because he sacrificed so much in becoming a champion.”
Going on to talk about the famous rice and beans diet, which Tony has been getting used to in the Away camp this week, Joe added: “When he was making weight for light heavyweight he would’ve been limited to his calorie intake because he would’ve been trying to make weight. So, I mean, three course meals would’ve been off the agenda at the training camp. He would’ve been on a very strict diet. Whatever diet and restrictions they’ve got in the jungle Tony will have no problem, that won’t be a major obstacle.”
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ITV)
Tony enters the show having worked for years as a boxing pundit on TV as well as starring in the Rocky spin off movies Creed and Creed III playing antagonist boxer Ricky Conlan. More recently he appeared in Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Joe added: “You will see the real Tony in the jungle. He’s a supreme athlete, he’s a nice guy. Yes, he’s bound to have anger issues, we all have anger issues, and have a breaking point, but in general he’s a really nice guy. He’s a very personable man. He’s very articulate. He’s very conversational, and the fact he’s not preparing for a fight he won’t have to be in that zone. So he will be a lot more at ease in the jungle as it won’t be a training camp.
“I hope he wins the show. He’ll be very entertaining there because his stories of growing up and stories of boxing are compelling, and working on Creed and so on, it will be good viewing for people. He’s got a good presence onscreen, he looks the part, he can act, the part he played as a fighter. He’s done SAS TV show. He does very well, he talks well on TV, and he’s got a great story.”
ITV viewers heard Tony discuss how he only began earning big money for boxing right at the end of his career and was “skint” when he became a world champion because he was “living fight to fight” with a big mortgage.
Pal Joe added: “When Tony won the world title when he had to fight David Haye, he got the big paydays and he got the Rocky movie – he deserves it because every pound that man has earned, he has earned it the hard way, because in the boxing game it’s the hardest earned money in the world in the sports world.”
*I’m A Celebrity continues every night at 9pm on ITV and ITV X
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