Heavyweight king Tyson Fury hailed Tony Bellew's achievement after he joined him on top of the world.
'Bomber' Bellew finally realised his dream of becoming cruiserweight champion last Sunday when he stopped Illunga Makabu at Goodison Park to claim the WBC belt.
Fury and Bellew were pals of old, before a stage of sniping at each other, but they are firm friends once again and the Gypsy King is delighted by the Scouser's success.
Speaking at his gym in Steenbergen, Holland where he is preparing for his rematch with Wladimir Klitschko, Fury said: "I was over the moon for Tony when he won that fight, I was on my feet screaming, 'Come on', when he had him.
"I was screaming for him to throw the uppercut. He finally got his chance, third time lucky, in front of his own fans and now he's cruiserweight king.
"It couldn't have happened to a nicer fella, a real family man with good morals. Me and Tony go back years, we were amateurs together - even David Price, we were all amateurs together.
"In the amateur days he was 91lbs, I was 120lbs-something, but we moved around and sparred together. There are no hard feelings about things we said, it's business, there is always going to be friction between fighters.
"I said stuff about him in the past and he said stuff about me, but it's no good if you can give stick out and not take a bit. We had a bit of banter between us but nothing more, nothing serious."
Fury, the WBA, WBO and IBO champion, has locked himself away at his gym on Holland's border with Belgium with just his trainer, his uncle Peter, fellow heavyweight and cousin Hughie, and a couple of gym workers and sparring partners for company.
And as he prepares for his second clash with Klitshcko, he looks in great shape just five weeks after showing off his belly at the fight launch, where he mocked the former champ for losing to a "fat man".
Fury added: "Holland has always been good to me. I had a lot of good camps here for the fights that never happened.
"It's away from all the distractions, no one is knocking on the door, none of my friends are here. I'm in solitude. It's train, eat, sleep, repeat. Twelve weeks and we've been here seven now. I'm really getting into it.
"I'm really focused and switched on to the job in hand, I have to be. There are no times when I'm not training.
"When I'm not training I'm resting, because we train, we go and eat, we rest and by the time we've rested a bit and start to feel all right again it's time to train again.
"I need the solitude this time because I'm a champion. It's harder to stay a champion than it is to become one.
"Everyone wants what I have and I'm here to not let them get it. I have a target, an X, on my back, so I have to put myself through more sacrifice and pain than the other man is doing."
Fury, who has cut out meat and is on a pescatarian diet as he hones his physique, expects a different fight and a different experience but still expects to come out on top.
He said: "It's not about achieving my dream any more, because I've done that. It's about maintaining it now and living the dream.
"Waldimir cannot win. I physically and mentally destroyed him. He did catch me with one right hand in the last fight, around round seven, right on the jaw.
"But I looked at him and said: 'Come on.' It didn't even hurt. I looked to Peter and told him I could walk through his punches. He said to me: 'Don't get hit by him!'"
