Dave Coldwell: "When you look at what Usyk has done, the size of the task Bellew and I had in front of us"

Dave Coldwell has hailed Alexander Usyk as a "different animal" ahead of Tony Bellew's rematch with the undisputed cruiserweight king on Saturday.

Bellew and Coldwell caused a seismic shock when they dethroned the pound-for-pound star in Manchester last November, with the Liverpudlian overcoming a broken left hand to force a stoppage in the eighth round.

Despite the doubts cast by many over whether Bellew's win was a flash in the pan, Coldwell was adamant there was no fluke about the champion's defeat, and insists 'The Bomber' can pull off another upset triumph in Manchester.

"He's a different animal. I feel it's a different animal to what we've had in front of us," said Coldwell, reflecting on the prospective rematch.

"It's one of those things where we've done it once, and the harder task is to do it twice.

"But we'd like to be one of those teams that come along every 50 years or so, that does something a little bit different and creates a bit of history."

While Bellew's success over Usyk shone a bright light on his abilities, and provided Coldwell with the finest moment of his training career, the 60-year-old trainer lamented the fact his fighter's victory has been overshadowed by the Ukrainian's sublime performance since.

Usyk, who had not tasted defeat in 16 fights, has gone on to beat Bellew's conqueror Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev to become undisputed cruiserweight champion, having previously swept aside the division in the World Boxing Super Series.

Coldwell added: "The shame is, and we saw it a little bit against Mairis Briedis, it's been forgotten about what Tony's done, and overshadowed by the performance of Usyk since.

"But I think when you look at what Usyk has done, you understand a little bit the size of the task that Tony and I had in front of us that night in Manchester."