David Haye: Tony Bellew “will not hear the final bell”

By Scott Gilfoid

David Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) says former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) will not be around to hear the final bell this Saturday night in their rematch at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

This fight has knockout written all over it. Haye, 37, is healthy this time, and he’s facing an upright blown up light heavyweight in Bellew, who has an upright fighting style very similar to Enzo Maccarinelli. If Haye goes after Bellew early with right hands, this contest will be over quickly within 2 rounds.

That’s if Haye respects Bellew’s power and takes his time. If Haye looks to engage immediately, I can see him knocking Bellew out in the 1st round. Bellew showed himself to be a bit of a runner last time he fought Haye. Each time Haye would come forward to engage, Bellew would retreat quickly all over the ring. I think we’re going to see the same thing from Bellew. He’s not going to stand his ground, that’s for sure.

As a heavyweight, Bellew has a very ugly fighting style that is totally negative. To be a spoiler like Bellew, Haye will need to chase after him, because he’ll never stand and fight. We saw that last time. Bellew showed no heart for the fighting until Haye was injured in the 6th round.

Haye is 100% healthy for the rematch, unlike last time they fought in March 2017, and he plans on knocking the 34-year-old Bellew out. In their first fight, Bellew took advantage of an injured Haye to score a stoppage in the 11th round. It was a fight that arguably should have never happened in the first place, because Haye looked like he was fighting on one leg. The fight was halted after Haye’s trainer Shane McGuigan threw in the towel in the 11th.

The fight was supposed to have been a mismatch last year. Bellew had never been a great fighter at 175 in losing to Nathan Cleverly and Adonis Stevenson. Bellew probably deserved another two more defeats in his two fights against Isaac Chilemba, which took place in the UK in front of Tony’s boxing fans. A lot of fans thought Bellew deserved losses in both fights. At cruiserweight, Bellew’s promoter was careful with whom he matched him against, putting him in with the likes of Ivica Bacurin, BJ Flores, Arturs Kulikauskis, Mateusz Masternak, Nathan Cleverly and Illunga Makabu. Bellew ended up winning the vacant WBC cruiserweight title when he beat Makabu by a 3rd round knockout in 2016.

For some reason the WBC had Makabu ranked No.1 with their organization despite the act that he’d never beaten anyone of note during his career. Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn never matched him against the dangerous guys at cruiserweight like Oleksandr Usyk, Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev, Krzystof Glowacki or Yunier Dorticos. Why didn’t Hearn match Bellew against those fighters? I think it was smart for Hearn not to match Bellew against them, because it likely ended badly for him.

”It will be a knockout, TKO, referee stoppage or the towel will come in. He will not hear the final bell,” Haye said to skysports.com. “Speed, timing, accuracy, conditioning,”Haye said in giving his keys to beating Bellew.

I have to agree with Haye. Bellew will probably not see the final bell in the 12th. I think the fight would been a terrible mismatch last year if Haye was healthy and well-trained, because Bellew is not the type of talent that beats Haye without him being out of shape and injured. Let’s face it. Haye was severely handicapped the last time they fought each other in 2017. What’s sad is the way Bellew has taken credit for his win, saying that he did it on talent rather than due to Haye being injured and out of shape.

I’m not sure that Bellew actually believes that Haye’s Achilles injury played no part in the final outcome or not. If he does believe that he won the fight outright without the aid of an injury, then he’s kidding himself. Anytime a fighter tears an Achilles during a fight, it hampers their ability to compete. Normally when that type of injury occurs in fights, the referee halts the contest rather than letting the fighter hobble around the ring. Haye was actually competitive with Bellew after the injury. That tells you something. It tells you that even a one-legged Haye was able to keep Bellew from doing much in the fight other than in rounds 6 and 11.

“It may not be early. It may be very late. I might aim to do something I’ve never done before. I always aim to take people out early but I might try something different,”Haye said. “[Bellew’s trainer] Dave Coldwell is a compassionate man.”

I know that Haye feels that it’s important for him to fight Bellew again, but honestly he probably should have moved on and looked to fight real heavyweights instead of wasting time against him again. Fighting a totally defensive minded Bellew a second time won’t improve Haye’s position in the heavyweight division. Bellew is not a major factor in the division. I mean, you can’t stick Bellew into the ring with the likes of Luis Ortiz, Adam Kownacki, Jarrell Miller or Alexander Povetkin and expect him to beat any of them.

Haye vs. Bellew 2 will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV this Saturday. While both fighters have spoken about wanting to move on after this fight to face other guys in the heavyweight division, it’s more likely than not that Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn will insist that they meet again in a third fight, especially if Saturday’s contest brings in a lot of loot from PPV sales.

The wily Hearn will likely impress upon Bellew and Haye the fact that they can make a heck of a lot more money fighting each other than they can by competing against the contenders in the heavyweight division. Hearn would be right about that. Bellew and Haye won’t make a ton of money fighting contenders like Jarrell Miller, Kownacki or Luis Ortiz. Moreover, those guys would be VERY dangerous for Bellew and Haye, because they’re real heavyweights, they have a natural size advantage over both of them, and they know how to fight.

When you look at the reality of the situation, Haye vs. Bellew is little more than a celebrity match rather than a sporting fight between two of the best heavyweights. This is a glorified celebrity match, and not even close to being a sporting fight between two of the most talented heavyweights in the division. You can’t throw Haye and Bellew into the ring with Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder and expect them to hold their head above water for any length of time.

Haye might have had a chance against Wilder when he was still green and inexperienced, but not now with him in his prime. That would be a very dangerous fight for Haye because he’s too small. Bellew would stand absolutely no chance against Wilder and Joshua. That’s why I see Hearn continuing to match Haye against Bellew for as long as the UK boxing fans are willing to pay to see them fight each other.

It might look a little wretched if Hearn matches Bellew and Haye against each other 4 or 5 times in a row instead of ending the rivalry after this Saturday. For world boxing fans, they would prefer to see Bellew and Haye fight other guys in the division rather than repeatedly fighting each other. We’ve seen other promoters matching Manny Pacquiao against Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez over and over again until the fans no longer could stomach watching the same tired match-ups.

Hopefully that’s not what Hearn is going to do with Haye and Bellew. If they’re both relevant heavyweights and not celebrity athletes incapable of competing with the best, then they need to start fighting the best fighters in the division. Haye hasn’t fought a quality heavyweight since his one-sided 12 round decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011. Bellew has only once at heavyweight and that was against an injured Haye. At cruiserweight, Bellew never fought any of the talented fighters. As I pointed out already, Hearn never matched Bellew against Gassiev, Usyk, Briedis, Glowacki and Dorticos. Hearn was obviously careful with his match-making for Bellew.