Tony Bellew did it again, this time without quite as big of an injury asterisk. The former light heavyweight knocked out the former heavyweight titleholder in five rounds today with a pretty left hook in London. Manny Rodriguez won the IBF bantamweight title in the co-main event as well.
I thought David Haye (28-4, 26 KOs) actually won the first two rounds against Tony Bellew (30-2-1, 20 KOs). Not a lot of consequence was landing, but I thought he was narrowly getting the better work in. His timing looked good and he landed a few good right hands, especially in the first round. Bellew took them well though despite the Hayemaker living up to his nickname by loading up big on every shot.
Everything changed late in the third round. The two men engaged in a furious exchange in which Bellew caught Haye clean out of no where and sent him to the canvas. Haye rose, but another combination put him down again basically at the bell. The former heavyweight titleholder was clearly not okay coming into the fourth round. There was some question as to whether or not he suffered a leg injury yet again, but if he did it wasn’t as dramatic as last time.
In the fourth itself Haye’s confidence was shot even if his leg wasn’t. He was wild. All David’s shots were huge and inaccurate winging blows. They often came with him backing away and sort of flailing with everything he had to just maybe land a miracle. It was clear that he didn’t think he was going to win as he fell into launch and pray mode. In the end, he was right. While he survived the fourth without incident, a huge left hook dropped him hard mid-Hayemaker in the fifth. He left himself open time and time again. This time Bellew took advantage. Haye rose yet again, but he looked bad and the ref stopped the fight before Bellew really even got much going.
Bellew played up his usual schtick in the post-fighter interview. The only thing of note he said was that he ended up calling out Andre Ward and or the winner of Usyk versus Gassiev back down at cruiserweight. David Haye just said Bellew was the better man and denied being injured. He may have been, however.
In the co-main event, Manny Rodriguez (18-0, 12 KOs) picked up the IBF bantamweight belt with two knockdowns and a near shutout win over English contender Paul Butler (26-2, 14 KOs). Butler missed weight badly and wasn’t eligible to win the vacant title, but that hardly mattered in the end as he lost basically every round to the better fighter. With the win Rodriguez gives Puerto Rico its third current world title. 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joe Joyce (4-0, 4 KOs), a man most considered robbed of gold, also picked up a second round stoppage win on the show over Jamaican journeyman Lenroy Thomas (22-5-1, 10 KOs).
