Over the years, there have been many crossover fights in boxing; nevertheless, Ronnie O’Sullivan is now suggesting that snooker should follow suit. The 48-year-old, who on Sunday won his record-tying seventh UK Championship title, has offered to challenge Real Madrid and England star Jude Bellingham.
In the championship match, O’Sullivan defeated Ding Junhui 10-7 while playing at a high level. O’Sullivan accomplished this feat by winning the UK Championship two days shy of turning 48, making him the oldest player to do it.
The Rocket, who captured his first UK Championship championship in 1993 at the age of just 17, also holds the record for being the tournament’s youngest winner. Despite having recently won the UK title, O’Sullivan is already searching for his next opponent and has made an unusual selection.
It seems that O’Sullivan decided to take on Bellingham after learning that the young person enjoys playing pool a lot. O’Sullivan saw the 20-year-old after he uploaded a picture of himself playing eight-ball on Instagram.
*Watches the Ronnie documentary for thirty minutes*. He posted, “Let me know if you fancy a game,” along with a winking emoji on his Instagram story. Bellingham then appeared to
O’Sullivan has participated in many exhibition matches against some of the finest snooker players ever in Asia, but a matchup with Bellingham would be a very different show.
Though he has played a few frames with a football player before, this would not be the first time. When David Beckham was a Manchester United player, the legendary snooker player challenged him at his London home.
Being an avid sports fan, Beckham shared that it was one of his favourite nights out to date. At the “The Edge of Everything” film premiere, O’Sullivan made the following statement: “Over the years, I was able to spend a little time with Ronnie.” Among my favourite evenings as a player for Manchester United, we’d played in London and I think we went out for a couple of beers and I ended up back at Ronnie’s house.
“His mum was making a cup of tea for us and we had a few frames. That was one of my favourite nights as a Manchester United player because I got to spend a few hours with Ronnie and get to know him.”
