After losing the major pay-per-view rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, this week’s big fight is now a heavyweight oddity in the United Kingdom. Can Tony Bellew do it again or will David Haye deliver the original respected outcome on his second chance?
Last May former light heavyweight contender and cruiserweight titleholder Tony Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) shocked the boxing world by moving up to heavyweight and stopping David Haye (28-3, 26 KOs). The win was unquestionably injury aided, but Tony Bellew won the fight regardless. That was not how the script was written up before the fight.
Bellew was a new fighter to me in 2011 when he stepped up to fight Nathan Cleverly for a light heavyweight title. Cleverly was considered a rising contender and I just assumed Tony Bellew was a domestic challenger on the same level or lower of recent other Cleverly opponents like Karo Murat. The first time title challenger put on a good performance in the end though. It wasn’t enough to win, but he gave Cleverly problems on a level that we hadn’t seen yet. Of course Nathan Cleverly went on to be a bit of a bust himself, but at the time it was a minor eye opener.
After a couple of lower level wins, the Liverpool man stepped back up for a title eliminator against Isaac Chilemba in 2013. Chilemba is a tricky, tricky fighter whose South African base and less exciting style have prevented him from getting the respect he deserves from boxing fans, but he can really make it difficult in there. I thought he beat Bellew comfortably. A lot of British media disagreed and thought Bellew won comfortably. The only men that really matter scored it a draw.
The boxers rematched a couple months later and this time the home fighter got a fair win on the cards. It was close, but Tony made the adjustments necessary to earn the title shot. Unfortunately for him, there were no cards to worry about after his second light heavyweight title opportunity. Adonis Stevenson saw to that. Bellew was dropped and then stopped standing in the sixth round thanks to signature Superman left hands.
This devastating loss sent Bellew right out of the division to cruiserweight in 2014. There he took a couple easy wins before rematching Nathan Cleverly at the new weight, this time getting the narrow win. Three fights later at the end of 2015 Bellew picked up his biggest cruiserweight win to date over strong Polish cruiserweight contender Mateusz Masternak to earn a third crack at holding a world title. I thought Junior Makabu would likely be too much for him, however, and for a round I looked like a genius as Bellew was dropped early in the fight. Not to be deterred, he rose and smashed Makabu out in the third round to finally become a world titleholder. Bellew made one defense of that belt in a finish of BJ Flores before moving to heavyweight.
David Haye was as a much more hyped prospect than Tony Bellew coming up through the ranks. After winning silver in the 2001 world championships, Haye’s early stage pro career was featured heavily on British television. He gained popularity quickly with his obvious power and bright personality. His rise through the cruiserweight rankings didn’t go off without a hitch though. Light hitting blown up middleweight Lolenga Mock dropped and nearly finished Haye in 2003. David recovered and won, but it was an odd moment given the opponent. Worse, Haye tired the next year against Carl Thompson and did end up being finished in that fight.
The idea briefly was that the London native was a busted prospect. He dismissed that idea in time, but what he has never quite been able to shake is the notion that he is fragile and chinny. Haye rebuilt himself slowly with nine straight wins including four European title fights, but it was his late 2007 title fight with French unified cruiserweight titleholder Jean Marc Mormeck that really launched him back on top of the sport. I have never felt that David Haye got the respect for the heart and grit he showed in that fight. He rose from the deck against a world class operator to finish him in seven.
After picking up a third belt with a quick stoppage over definitely chinny Enzo Maccarinelli, Haye moved to heavyweight. In his second fight at the went he met Russian seven foot giant Nikolai Valuev for the big man’s WBA belt. Haye put forth a tentative performance, but as the much better athlete he took basically every round to win the belt. The new titleholder made two defenses against aging versions of John Ruiz and Audley Harrison before signing on to tackle the Wladimir Klitschko challenge.
Unfortunately, that much hyped fight was a total dud. I don’t usually like to say things like this, but David Haye fought scared. He refused to engage and made the experience as negative as possible for the viewing public. In doing so he survived without getting knocked out against a man where few could do that at the time, but he didn’t ever appear to try to win. Post fight he cried about a toe injury and that has been a running gag ever since. All this just added to the idea that Haye was mentally weak.
After the Klitchsko fight Haye returned with another hyped and well talked up fight against Derek Chisora. He triumphed in five and then seemingly retired from the sport. Haye did manage to stay away for almost four years before returning with two easy tuneups in 2016 that led to the fight with Tony Bellew. No one took the matchup seriously at first, but eventually Haye and his opponent talked up the fight enough that the public bought it. If David Haye is anything, it is a highly successful salesman.
Tony Bellew still isn’t really and never will be a heavyweight. The money to fight David Haye in a manufactured grudge match was just too much. The build up was fun and the hype meter was high come fight night. In the week or so leading up to the match there were persistent rumors that David Haye was hurt and hiding an injury, but that did nothing to put a damper on the enthusiasm in the UK. Haye came out wild in the fight itself, winging away with reckless bombs. Shortly after finally settling down to fight a sane fight, Haye ruptured his achilles tendon in the sixth round. His mobility deteriorated round by round until all he could do was stand on the ropes and try to land bombs from one leg. The strategy failed and eventually Bellew stopped him in the eleventh.
Despite its weird nature, the first fight between the two men was as high drama as it comes. It also did a lot to finally redeem Haye’s reputation as a mentally weak fighter. Someone who isn’t strong willed would not have fought on with one leg for over five rounds. The Hayemaker didn’t quit in the end either. His corner had to throw in the towel to save their one legged fighter after he rose again and again from the canvas and even from outside the ring itself.
Predicting the outcome here is difficult. The same idea that Haye is just too big and strong applies here as it did the first time, but it didn’t exactly manifest itself in the rounds before his achilles ruptured. Instead David was wild as he seemed to frantically hunt only for the knockout. Then again, maybe he knew he was on borrowed time in the fight. There were a lot of murmurs of him being injured coming into fight night. What if he knew that his leg might not hold up and just figured he could bomb out the guy who had been stopped at light heavyweight? It makes sense to me. I guess I am talking myself into a Haye knockout victory here. If he fights a normal sane fight and is healthy, I don’t really know what Bellew’s path to victory even is outside of landing something unlikely. Well, his path to victory is David Haye being an idiot or getting hurt, I guess.
The show starts at 1 PM Eastern and has American distribution through AWE. Yeah, I don’t get that channel either. Chief support will be a vacant IBF bantamweight title fight between Paul Butler and Manny Rodriguez. Most of us Americans will have to find more creative means to watch, but I suspect it will be worth it in the end.
