Tony Bellew vs. David Haye 2 on May 5 in London, UK

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By Scott Gilfoid: David ‘Hayemaker’ Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) and Tony ‘Bomber’ Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) have a new date of May 5 for their rematch at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Bellew says he’s going to make Haye pay for messing up his Christmas.

The two were supposed to fight on December 17, which would have enabled Bellew to enjoy the holiday while recovering from the fight. Unfortunately for Bellew, Haye suffered a biceps injury while exercising on a Stairmaster machine recently, and he couldn’t make the December 17 date.

With Haye’s injury problems, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the rescheduled Bellew-Haye 2 fight gets postponed. I have my doubts whether the fight will take place on May 5. If Haye suffers another injury, they’ll need to kick the fight down the road for later in 2018. Bellew obviously won’t give up on the idea of fighting Haye, because he’s under contract for that fight. In addition to that, it’s one of 2 fights that will give Bellew a good retirement payday. The other fight is Tyson Fury. Bellew doesn’t want to fight Anthony Joshua, so he’s not an option. I suppose Deontay Wilder would be a possibility if the American heavyweight were interested in fighting him. That would be a huge size and talent mismatch. Wilder is way too big, too strong and too talented for a small, flabby cruiserweight like Bellew.

It’s hard to know how good Haye and Bellew are at this point in their careers, because neither guy has fought anyone of note in a long time. Bellew has never fought one of the young lions in the heavyweight division, and he likely never will. Haye hasn’t fought a good heavyweight since his loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011. Haye’s fight with Bellew earlier this year in March was more of a cruiserweight level contest than a match between two top level heavyweights. Bellew weighed only 213 pounds for that fight, and he looked soft around the midsection. Bellew was technically a heavyweight, but he looked more like a rehydrated cruiserweight, and not an in-shape cruiserweight.

Bellew, 34, sees Haye as a stepping stone for a much bigger fight against Tyson Fury in 2018. Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn sees the Fury fight as a good possibility for him next year, as long as he beats Haye in the rematch. That could be a big ask for Bellew though, as he was losing to Haye in their fight earlier this year on March 4 before the Hayemaker suffered a bad Achilles injury in round 6. If the fight had continued to play out like it had in the first 5 rounds, Haye would have won going away.

Bellew was too slow to stop Haye’s powerful jab, which was like a power punch. Bellew was getting hit with the jab repeatedly when he would come forward. Just looking back at that fight, Bellew was helpless until Haye suffered the injury in the 6th. Without Haye suffering an injury, Bellew’s chances of winning that fight were about nil. Bellew was too slow to get past Haye’s jab. Bellew did have some success in the first 3 rounds when Haye was throwing wild shots and getting countered.

“I’m pleased to get a new date in the diary and I look forward to giving boxing fans a great night on May 5,” said Bellew.

Bellew-Haye 2 fight will make big noise in the UK, as both guys are well-known due to their personalities. Haye hasn’t done anything for many years in terms of being a top-level fighter. Haye’s career took a nosedive after a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko in July 2011. Haye has done little since then, beaing Dereck Chisora, Mark de Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj before losing to Bellew earlier this year due to an injury.

Bellew has mostly just been a contender his entire career. Before Bellew became the WBC cruiserweight champion in May 2016 by beating a flawed contender in Illunga Makabu, his claim to fame was losing to light heavyweight champions Nathan Cleverly and Adonis Stevenson. Bellew was in the perfect situation last year in being allowed to fight Makabu for the vacant WBC cruiserweight title rather than the far more solid Mairis Briedis. Had Bellew been forced to fight Briedis for the World Boxing Council cruiserweight belt, it’s highly unlikely he would have ever won that title in my opinion. When it came time for Bellew to defend the WBC title, his promoter Eddie Hearn chose to steer around #1 WBC Briedis and take a fight against #14 BJ Flores, which he easily won. Bellew ended up being stripped of his WBC title after he chose not to fight Briedis and instead go after a fight with Haye.

“I now have a very clear plan for 2018 and that is to knock out David Haye, and then knock out Tyson Fury and end both their careers,” said Bellew.

Let’s be serious here. Bellew is likely going to lose badly to Haye unless he suffers another debilitating injury. If Bellew does get past Haye and that’s a big IF, he’s going to get slapped around the ring by the 6’9” Fury in 2018. That’s a tune-up level fight for Fury, who probably can beat Bellew even if he came into the fight in his present condition weighing over 350 pounds. Fury has too much size and skills for a slugger like Bellew to have any chance against him. That would be a money fight in the UK, and little more than that. Fury and Bellew would do a good job of selling the mismatch, but it wouldn’t be competitive. Bellew is too small to mix it up with a super heavyweight like Fury.

”I need to rid the sport of David Haye on May 5 and I look forward to doing this in what I believe will be an explosive fight,” said Bellew.

I see Bellew as more of a businessman at this point in his career than a true world class fighter. He’s got a nice business fight against Haye, and it should bring in good numbers on Sky Box Office pay-per-view, but we’re not seeing the cream of the crop at heavyweight. Bellew is more of a fringe level heavyweight taking on an increasingly fragile Haye in his old age.

Nah, I see Bellew getting dominated by Haye. In watching their previous fight before writing this article, Haye was in full control of the fight by round 3, and dominating the action with his jab alone until he suffered a freak Achilles injury in round 6 of the contest. If the fight had continued to play out like it had in the first 5 rounds, Haye would have won going away.

Haye needs to make it through his training camp in one piece for him to share the ring with Bellew and beat him in the rematch. If Haye is able to get through training camp and not sustain a bad injury during the fight with Bellew, I see him beating the brakes off of him with ease. It’s not even a fight if Haye is in shape and not hobbled somehow with another debilitating injury. Haye is simply a superior athlete to Bellew, and the much more powerful fighter. Haye is a legitimate cruiserweight, who fights at heavyweight. Bellew is more of a pumped up light heavyweight that now fights at heavyweight. Bellew would easily make cruiserweight if he chose to, but there’s no one in the division for him to fight and make good money against. Bellew would likely be destroyed by the top cruiserweights like Oleksandr Usyk, Mairis Briedis, Yunior Dorticos, Murat Gassiev and Denis Lebedev. Those guys are all way too good for Bellew to beat in my opinion. Bellew is fighting at heavyweight now because there’s money for him to make. He shouldn’t have beaten Haye last time, but a freak injury the Hayemaker suffered in round 6 enabled him to pull off the upset. With a healthy Haye, Bellew doesn’t stand a chance in my view. We’re talking about two different classes of athlete. Bellew is pretty much a contender level fighter, whereas as Haye has won world titles in 2 different weight classes. You can’t throw Bellew into the ring with heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder, Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua and expect him to beat any of them. You can do with Haye. If he’s healthy, he’d have a punchers’ chance of beating Joshua, Wilder and Parker. I’m not saying Haye would beat them, but he’d have a far better chance of defeating them than Bellew would.