Haye: Bellew will be finished after Saturday

boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) says he’s going to cave in the face of Tony Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) on Saturday night in their fight on Sky Box Office pay-per-view at the O2 Arena in London, England. Haye says that Bellew will be finished as a fighter after he destroys him in front of the boxing fans that see the fight.

As far as Haye concerned, Bellew is tailor made for him. He sees him as a fighter that he’s going to obliterate quickly on Saturday. Bellew is definitely the underdog in this fight. It’s not that he’s not a good fighter. The real difficult the 33-year-old Bellew has is he’s never fought at heavyweight before, and he’s very easy to hit. This isn’t a tune-up fight for Bellew, and he probably should have taken at least two to get ready for what he’s going to be dealing with at heavyweight against Haye.

The real suspense for me is whether Bellew will make it out of round 1 against Haye. I don’t think he will. If Haye decides to unload on Bellew like I think he will in the 1st round, then they’re going to be picking up pieces of the Liverpool fighter from all around the ring on Saturday night.

Bellew will be shelled out of the ring, and the boxing fans will wonder why they even bothered to pay to see the spectacle. It would be a more of a fight if Bellew at least proven himself at cruiserweight as being the best, but he hasn’t done that. Bellew has been managed carefully at cruiserweight, and has ZERO experience at heavyweight. There’s nothing that you can say about Bellew that suggests that he’s improved from the fighter that was blasted to smithereens by Adonis Stevenson in 2013 in six rounds. He’s the same fighter as far as I’m concerned.

“I gained confidence from seeing your last two fights,” said Bellew to Haye from ‘The Gloves are Off’ special. “

Haye didn’t look bad in his last two fights since making his comeback in 2016. He knocked out Mark De Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj. I’m not sure where Bellew is talking about. Haye looked better in his last two fights than he did in 2012 when he stopped Dereck Chisora in 5 rounds.

“It’s an easy fight,” said Haye about Bellew. “He’s an annoying human being, and I’m going to smash him. You’re one of the most predictable guys I know. You as a fighter, I don’t rate. I seriously think you’re terrible. Your skillset is horrendous. I think your defense is gaping open. Your punch variety is basic and predictable. You do the same thing with your legs. Everything is very predictable. If I was a cruiserweight, I’d knock you out. I love looking at his annoying face knowing on March 4th, I’m going to cave it in. You can’t put me down. You don’t punch hard enough. You can hit me with your best shot on my chin and nothing is happening. It’ll bounce off. You don’t have the fire power. You’re tailor made. If I could construct an opponent that would get knocked out super quick, superfast, and super spectacularly, I’d probably say get me someone like Tony Bellew. After the fight, you’ll be finished. It’ll be the end of the conversation. People want to see you destroyed. I go out there, I let my hands go, and he goes to sleep. It’s as simple as that. I won’t need s dog fight in this fight. I’ll go out there and put on a punching display. I’ll put the guy on the floor,” said Haye.

If Bellew decides to throw down on Saturday, he’s probably going to get countered for every shot he lands. I think the fight could end quickly if Bellew decides he wants to make it a war with Haye. It would be better for Bellew to be tactical inside the ring rather than trying to fire power shots. Bellew has a pretty good jab when he chooses to use it. Bellew should be trying to box Haye rather than getting in the ring and trying to trade shots.

Bellew played it safe in his second fight with Ovill McKenzie in July 2011 after being dropped twice in their first fight in December 2010. Bellew focused on his boxing skills in the second fight with McKenzie and stayed on the outside the entire fight, taking no chances whatsoever. I have a feeling that Bellew will do the same thing against Haye. Bellew would be a fool to make the fight a war, because he doesn’t have hand speed, power, experience or the athleticism to brawl with Haye.

Bellew is there to be hit. The only way Bellew has any chance of pulling off an upset in this fight is if he can take Hayes best shots for four or five rounds, and look to take over the fight if/when he gasses out like he did against Carl Thompson in 2004. That was a long time ago, and Bellew isn’t as solid a fighter as Thompson. The Thompson that beat Haye in that fight would likely stop Bellew. Thompson took a lot of heavy punches from Haye before he was able to stop him in round 5.

If Bellew wins, he stands to gain a lot if he stays at heavyweight. Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn is already talking about wanting to put him in with IBF champion Anthony Joshua. A win for Bellew over Haye will give Hearn a reason to crow about the victory long and hard, and tell the boxing public that Bellew has earned the right to fight Joshua. Frankly, I don’t see a victory for Bellew over Haye as being enough to earn a shot against Joshua.

Bellew should need to beat someone else from the top 15 like Dillian Whyte or Luis Ortiz. If Bellew can take their scalps as well, then you can talk about him having earned a fight against Joshua. Whatever the case, I don’t see Bellew beating Haye. I think it’s going to be a total massacre with the fight being over in one round with Bellew on the canvas, looking up at the referee counting and wondering what happened.

Bellew needs to run from Haye for as long as he can, because if he stands and fights him, he’s not going to last long. If I was Bellew’s trainer, I would have had him on the track field every day working on his running ability, because I think he needs that more than anything in this fight.

The World Boxing Council won’t be stripping Bellew’s WBC cruiserweight title from him if he loses to Haye. They’re going to let Bellew keep his WBC title and defend it against the winner of the Marco Huck vs. Mairis Briedis fight. Some sanctioning bodies strip their champions when they choose to fight outside of their divisions. They strip when they lose their fights. Bellew is fortunate that he’s being given a free shot to fight Haye without having to worry about losing a title. I don’t think that’s good news for the contenders in the WBC’s rankings, because they have to sit and wait for Bellew to get done what he wants to do before they eventually get a crack at the WBC title. A champion should only fight guys from his own division rather than being allowed to fight in other divisions and freeze their title.