Tony Bellew has accused Nathan Cleverly of running scared in Saturday’s grudge rematch at the Echo Arena in Liverpool.

Bellew won a split decision against his bitter rival in their WBO & WBA Intercontinental cruiserweight showdown to claim revenge after losing the first fight between the pair three years ago.

However, the Liverpudlian was upset by Cleverly’s performance and at failing to be declared the winner on all three of the judges’ scorecards.

“I got the victory and that’s all that matters,” Bellew told Sky Sports News HQ on Sunday morning.

“I didn’t get the knockout that I wanted, but I’ve won and I’ve won clearly. I really feel I’ve won a fight and won it by a landslide, an easy fight at the office.

“It takes two to make a great fight and I can only apologise that it wasn’t the spectacle that I wanted it to be.”

Bellew, who lost a majority verdict to the Welshman at light heavyweight, was in no doubt about the result this time round.

“I thought I won nine rounds quiet clearly and I’ve watched the fight back a few times now,” added Bellew, who dismissed suggestions that Cleverly may have injured his right hand as he didn’t use it much during the 12-rounder.

“No, there was no injury there because if you look at the latter rounds he’s throwing right hands right around the side of my head, he’s throwing long right hands.

“The thing is that, he knows last night that if he got knocked out the career is over completely. You’ve got to remember this guy came to fight Sergey Kovalev head on.

“Because when he fought Sergey Kovalev he was undefeated and believed he couldn’t be hurt. He didn’t come to fight me head on.

“I came to fight him, I turned up and threw punches all night - he was petrified of getting hit by a left hook and he would refuse to throw the right hand.

“Last night I was the guy who out-worked the great athlete, I was the fat guy who was throwing all the heavy punches and Cleverly was the supposed great athlete who ran away, just throwing jabs.

“I snapped my right hand in the first fight in the second round,” added Bellew. “I was still throwing right hands in that fight and I had broken my right hand.

“Now what’s the excuse there? The excuse is that he didn’t want to get knocked out and he knew he was going to get knocked out had he gone into exchanges with me.

“He wouldn’t exchange all night and like I say, I can’t force somebody to fight. To make a great fight it takes two.

“I’m really disappointed because he said he would fight and I said I would come to fight, but I did, I upheld my part of the bargain.

“I want to fight guys who want to win and want to come and fight and last night he did not come to win.

“I feel like I’m not getting any credit,” added Bellew. “Everybody who’s anybody in boxing said ‘Bellew KO or Cleverly points’ - everybody in boxing said it.

“But I proved everybody wrong last night, I outpointed the guy with the crazy tank, I outpointed the great athlete, I out-worked the speed demon, I out-sped him.

“I did everything better than him last night and still when I come out ‘it’s disappointing, it was a disappointing fight’. Why because Tony Bellew won on points and nobody expected that?

“Why was it a disappointing fight? I’ve out-worked him, I’ve bullied him, I’ve done something that no-one in his career has done.

“No-one has bullied Nathan Cleverly for 12 rounds, Sergey Kovalev just blasted him to bits, I bullied him and roughed him up for 12 rounds. He won clearly two rounds, that is all he won in that fight.”

In the wake of victory Bellew said he would be willing to fight Cleverly a third time in Wales at the Millennium Stadium, but the 31-year-old now doubts whether there would be the demand for it.

“I’m not too sure,” added Bellew. “My ranking was well above his and I took that fight last night because it was personal, I wanted to put the demons to bed, I knew I was better than him, I knew I was the better boxer, the better fighter and I proved that last night.

“I think with the fight being so one-sided I don’t think there is much call for the third fight being totally honest.

“It was one-sided, you don’t lose nine rounds of a fight and have a rematch because no-one is going to want to see that, especially with him not coming to fight.

“I’m looking at world champions, I’ve got fantastic world champions in my division; Marco Huck, Yoan Pablo Hernanez, Denis Lebedev and Grigory Drozd.

"They are all fantastic champions and I’m happy to face anyone of them because all of these guys come to fight and I can put hand on heart and tell you that if I fight one of these guys, I’m coming to fight too.

“You will get the best out of me when guys come to fight and last night I had to force that pace and really go for it as best I could but now it’s onwards and upwards.”