Tony Bellew starred in the original Rocky spin-off six years ago. Now, he is slated to return as Ricky Conlan in Creed 3.
In the 2016 box office hit, the former WBC cruiserweight champion made his acting debut with Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan.
Bellew played the role of in-ring rival of Adonis Creed, the main protagonist.
Conlan drops Creed in a sequence in the movie. Jordan later confesses that he really suffered a hit from Bellew that left him “seeing stars.”
On set, Bellew and another actor reportedly got into a violent argument in 2015, according to TMZ. Before the police were summoned to look into the situation, Stallone reportedly had to break up a brawl between the two guys.
In the first Creed movie, Malik Bazille portrayed a character called Amir. He was on set with Bellew for a particularly drawn-out shot when things became heated.
The comedian and actor claimed that he did nothing wrong and that Bellew’s anger was just a case of mistaken identification.
On the podcast TFATK in 2021, Bazille remarked,
“We’re on the set of Creed and the studio heads are there, it’s a long 14-hour day. Ryan Coogler – the director – he’d do these weird spots where he would watch playback and this time he was under the ring, no one can see him.”
Coogler starts directing Bellew from behind the camera, asking him repeatedly to “sell the body shot.” Bellew thinks that the supporting actor is the one giving him instructions.
Bazille added: “We cut. I’m chilling and talking to the extras. I’m chopping it up and he goes, ‘Malik, don’t ever tell me to f***ing sell a body shot. I know how to f***ing sell a body shot.’”
The two guys exchanged words briefly and then Bellew attempted to physically attack Bazille.
He continued: “Literally, people called the press, the police, because the extras thought, ‘Oh, we love Malik. Malik looked like he was about to get killed. I was in the trailer. We had to be separated the whole day. We had to go in separate vans back to the hotel, we stayed in the same hotel.”
“This is the funny part of the story. I’m in the front seat and I’ve got security and all that. Andre Ward goes, ‘How does it feel when you’re about to get you’re a** beat and still survive?’”
Bazille chuckled at the event with little sign of regret, but he said that Coogler’s “strange” directorial style and the four days spent filming the same sequence were to blame.