TONY BELLEW has revealed what sparked his near brawl with a member of Jermaine Franklin's team.
The former WBC cruiserweight champion nearly came to blows with trainer Lorenzo Reynolds moments after the 989 Assassin's defeat to Anthony Joshua.
The pair had to be pulled back after a heated exchange, which followed a near melee between Joshua and Franklin.
And Bellew has revealed he gave a piece of his mind to Reynolds after the American made an aggressive post-fight "approach" to AJ.
He told iFL TV: "You can't have a trainer going for a boxer.
'So I said, 'Hey lad what are you playing at?' And he's said something and I've said, 'F*** it, let's do it then.
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" I'll f***ing meet you with a right hand.' His mate apologised to me and I said 'you can't'.
'I didn't want the trouble with him but I just said, 'What are you doing?' And he went, 'What are you going to do?'
'I said, 'What the f*** are you going to do'. So I've stepped down like 'Let's go.'.
"I stepped aside so I thought he was going to step to me and a right hand was going to meet him.
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"But he didn't get close enough so what do you want me to do?
"I was just trying to tell the man that you can't approach a fighter, so you can't do that.
"It's down to the fighters and if Jermaine and [Anthony] are having a little tussle."
Matchroom Boxing chief Eddie Hearn said of the incident: "I asked him [Bellew] I think he just said that [Franklin's] trainer went for AJ or something.
"And he shouted something, and then he shouted something at Bellew.
"He's probably the wrong person to shout something at."
Victory over Franklin saw Joshua pick up his first win in nearly three years and move a small step back towards world title contention.
In his post-fight interview, AJ said: "Last time I grabbed the mic, it was a bit chaotic so I'm calm.
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"I appreciate every single person coming out this evening.
"Inside this squared circle, it's a different type of energy in here so I apologise to anybody watching and seeing that type of stuff because we're sportsmen."
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