By Elliot Foster

Tony Bellew has made it clear that he wants to be out of the sport of boxing within the next 12 months.

The Liverpool cruiserweight, who is the current WBC champion and next week steps up to heavyweight to take on former WBA champion David Haye at London’s O2 Arena, made the revelations on Wednesday.

Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) faces Haye on March 4, exclusively live on Sky Sports Box Office, over 12 rounds.

And the 34-year-old former British and Commonwealth champion and world title challenger at light-heavyweight has earmarked the clash against Bermondsey’s Haye (28-2, 26 KOs), 36, as potentially one of his last.

“I’m edging towards the end of this crazy game,” he told the Fight Disciples podcast.

“Hopefully this could be my last year in the game –– more likely in the next 12 months.

“I just think these could be the last [fights].

“I’ve always been adamant that I will retire from boxing, boxing will not retire me. I’ve always believed that. Don’t overstay your welcome.”

They say boxers have one Hollywood moment in their career, whatever that may be, but ‘Bomber’ has already had more than one.

Not only has the Scouse scrapper won the world title in his beloved Everton Football Club’s Goodison Park stadium against feared puncher Ilunga Makabu last May, he has also featured in a Rocky movie –– Creed –– alongside fellow fighter Andre Ward.

“For someone like me you’ve got to look at it like this: if you’re playing a video game, I’ve clocked the game,” he continued. “I’m trying to get the bonus things out of the game now. I’ve exceeded my expectations in this business. Now the only thing left to do is secure my kids’ future.

“If [the fight with Makabu] had have made me financially secure, you wouldn’t have seen in a boxing ring again, but it didn’t.”

Bellew admitted when in the Radio City Talk studio alongside hosts Nick Peet and Adam Catterall that the Sky Sports Box Office revenue from the Haye fight should go some way towards fulfilling the aim he has of ensuring his three children have a good life.

“I had to give in to a lot of diva-ish demands from Mariah Haye,” he laughed. “It was unbelievable. I thought I was going to have to give him a piggy back into the ring!

“I must be seated at the press conference until he sits down was one of the rules, I must be seated in the blue corner, I must be this, I must be that. He soon found out when we sat down at that first press conference last November I’m not a man who plays by the rules.

“I said: ‘Listen, let’s just cut a long story short, can I pick my own shorts, can I pick my own gloves? Yes, yes. You can have everything else.’

“All I care about is fighting.”

You can watch the Facebook Live feature, which was first broadcast on Wednesday, at http://bit.ly/2l93cZL.