The highly anticipated heavyweight rematch of Tony Bellew’s injury aided late stoppage of David Haye was supposed to happen on the 17th of this month, but yet another injury to Haye delayed it. We now have our new date of May 5th at the O2 Arena, the site of their first fight.
In their March fight, David Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) ruptured his achilles tendon in the sixth round and was basically a sitting duck from there on for shots from cruiserweight titleholder Tony Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs). At times with Haye barely even able to support his own weight, Bellew eventually wore down and finished off the bigger man in the eleventh round. This was an upset, but an understandable one given the circumstances.
The scheduled December 17th rematch was called off after Haye fell during a stair conditioning exercise and tore his left bicep. There was a lot of concern that he was coming back much too soon for an achilles injury as well, so hopefully this further delay allows both injuries to fully heal. The Hayemaker has always been quite fragile, however, so don’t be surprised if this fight ends up not happening again.
Their first fight was sold as a grudge match and a success commercially in the United Kingdom. The rematch will likely perform just as well, and maybe even better in May as it is no longer stuck in the middle of a busy end of the year for UK pay per view cards.
