By Shaun Brown

Any proposed bout between Tony Bellew and light-heavyweight king Andre Ward looks to be dead in the water.

Bellew, the WBC Emeritus cruiserweight champion, could instead be about to go back into the ring with David Haye for a second time.

The Liverpudlian is expected to fight before the end of 2017 and an announcement on his next opponent appears to be not far away.

“Eddie Hearn is closing in on [my next opponent] now,” Bellew told Sky Sports News.

“We got a fair bit closer with Andre Ward and I thought that was going to get announced imminently, to be honest.

“Eddie came back to me with something else, and said ‘this is what’s going on and this is what’s happening’. I trust Eddie and I believe in what he does by me. He had led me this far.”

Bellew’s promoter delivered a dream for the Everton fan when the 34-year-old walked out at his beloved Goodison Park in May 2016 to stun Ilunga Makabu to capture the WBC cruiserweight title in spectacular fashion. The 'Bomber' continued his momentum with a three round demolition of BJ Flores in his first defence before moving up to heavyweight to defeat David Haye earlier this year.

Talks with Haye have restarted following their bout in March which saw Haye rupture his Achilles tendon in round six and Bellew suffer a broken hand.

With Ward seemingly no longer the priority for Bellew, and fellow target WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker scheduled to fight Hughie Fury on September 23 in Manchester, a rematch with Haye looks like the remaining option for Bellew should he fight again this year.