Tony Bellew returned to the role of ‘Pretty’ Ricky Conlan in Creed 3 after previously starring in the first Rocky spin-off six years ago.
The former WBC cruiserweight champion made his acting debut alongside the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan in the 2016 box-office hit.
Bellew played the main in-ring opponent of Adonis Creed - the grandson of Apollo Creed - and the character who the entire franchise is based around.
There is a scene in the film where Conlan drops Creed and Jordan revealed that he actually took a real punch from Bellew that left him ‘seeing stars’.
As if cracking the movie's big star wasn't enough, ‘Bomber’ almost got into a physical altercation with someone else during his first movie set experience.
Back in 2015, TMZ reported that things got heated between Bellew and another actor on set. Apparently, Stallone was forced to break up a fight between the two men before police were called to investigate the incident.
Details about the event were scarce until last year when the man who Bellew was trying to attack spoke publicly about the incident for the first time.
Malik Bazille played a character named Amir in the first Creed film and was on set with Bellew for a particularly long shoot when tempers flared.
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According to the comedian and actor, he did nothing wrong and Bellew’s anger towards him was simply a case of mistaken identity.
“We’re on the set of Creed and the studio heads are there, it’s a long 14-hour day,” Bazille said on The Fighter and The Kid podcast in 2021.
“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.”
From his position out of view, Coogler begins to give direction to Bellew by repeatably telling him to ‘sell the body shot’. However, the now-retired boxer thinks the background actor is the one barking orders at him and doesn't take kindly to it.
“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,’” Bazille added.
A few words are exchanged between the two men who were separated by the ring before Bellew jumped out of it and tried to physically confront Bazille.
Despite the fact no punches were thrown, people on set panicked and called the police. Bazille was sent back to his trailer, assigned security and kept away from Bellew for the rest of the day.
“Literally, people called the press, the police, because the extras thought, ‘Oh, we love Malik. Malik looked like he was about to get killed,' he continued
"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 clearly had no hard feelings about the incident which he laughed about while suggesting it was triggered by four consecutive days shooting the same scene and Coogler’s ‘weird’ directing style.
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