Khan picks Haye to beat Bellew

By Boxing News - 12/31/2016 - Comments

Image: Khan picks Haye to beat Bellew

By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan isn’t giving cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) too good of a chance of beating David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) in their fight at heavyweight on March 4 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Khan thinks that Haye will be too big, too strong, too fast and too experienced for Bellew to beat him when these two guys square off on Sky Box Office pay-per-view.

Bellew, 33, has been making a lot of bold predictions about the fight, and he sounds very confident for a fighter that is a big underdog in the fight. Bellew does not care that he’s the underdog though. He sees weakness in the 36-year-old Haye that he believes he can take advantage of.

I think it’s not about Bellew believing he can win against Haye or not. I don’t believe he really thinks he can win. I see Bellew having taken the fight against Haye for the payday. Bellew is going to make A LOT more money fighting Haye than he would get in facing the winner of the Mairis Briedis vs. Marco Huck fight.

Bellew will likely get knocked out by the winner of that fight, and his paydays could dwindle down dramatically after that. I’m sure that his promoter Eddie Hearn will trot out Nathan Cleverly once again for Bellew to fight yet again, but I’m not sure if the British boxing public will be too energized about that tired old match-up. I don’t think they will though. Bellew and Cleverly have been matched up one time too many. If that’s all Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn has for him if/when he loses to Haye, then it’s pretty sad.

Khan said this to skysports.com about Bellew having made a mistake by fighting Haye:

“I think he’s maybe just tried to bite too much by going in the ring with a heavyweight,” Khan said. “I like Bellew. I think he’s a great fighter and a great champion. I think he should have stayed at his own weight category.”

I don’t think Bellew believes he can beat Haye. I see this as a money grab/cash out type of fight for Bellew. If he finally faces his No.1 challenger for his World Boxing Council cruiserweight title, he’s just going to lose that fight. By the same token, if Bellew is able to do an end run around his mandatory challenger by facing one of the other cruiserweight champions, he’s going to lose that fight too in my estimation.

If Marco Huck winds up as Bellew’s mandatory challenger, then I think he’ll take that fight, because there’s some money to be made. But if Mairis Briedis ends up as his mandatory, then I can see Bellew getting Hearn to work out a deal for him to bypass his mandatory so he can either take another voluntary defense or fight in a unification fight. The way I see it, a unification fight is a cash out fight for Bellew, because he’ll lose his WBC title. The sanctioning body is allowing Bellew to keep his WBC cruiserweight title no matter what the outcome is in his fight against Haye.

“David has also got a lot of speed. I can’t see [Bellew] winning this fight. I am sorry to say that. David is much bigger and much stronger and has a little bit more experience going into that fight,” said Khan.

Bellew definitely loses to Haye and loses badly. I’m just surprised anyone would be interested in a mismatch between Bellew and Haye in the UK. I mean, a fight of that nature wouldn’t draw flies if it were to take place elsewhere. If WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder decided he wanted to fight an unproven paper champion from the cruiserweight division, the boxing fans in the U.S wouldn’t start raving and stomping their feet, buying tickets for that mismatch and purchasing it on pay-per-view The fans would want to see a legitimate fight involving Wilder facing a proven entity at heavyweight, and not a flabby cruiserweight.

Bellew and Haye should be thankful that the fans are interested in seeing their fight, because it’s a mismatch on paper. Khan obviously knows what kind of a mismatch it is, and he’s not going to try and whitewash it by saying it’s a 50-50 type of fight. Khan knows what he sees, and he sees a mismatch just like I do and a lot of boxing fans.

As far as what Bellew should do to try and get the ‘W’ in this fight against Haye, I think he should probably attack him straightaway in the 1st round just like he did in his last defense of his title against #14 WBC BJ Flores. If Bellew can land something in the first few rounds, then maybe he can get Haye out of there before he lands one of his own bombs.

I don’t see it happening for Bellew, but I still think that’s his best chance. Bellew must go after the chin of Haye early for him to have a chance of winning the fight. The longer the fight goes the better Haye’s chances are of scoring a knockout.

Haye could have been fighting WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker for his title rather than wasting his time fighting a cruiserweight in Bellew. That’s the really weird part. Instead of Haye taking a shot at the WBO champion Parker, who looked plenty flawed earlier this month in beating Andy Ruiz Jr. by a questionable 12 round decision, Haye has decided to take the easy path by going after Bellew. It’s a lost opportunity for Haye, because if he could win the WBO title from Parker, then it would help him get a bigger slice of the revenue in a unification fight against IBF champion Anthony Joshua.

Khan is going to be fighting in April against an opponent still to be determined. He says he wants it to be a tune-up fight. This means another soft job like we’ve been seeing from Khan during the last four years. He only faced one good fighter in the last four years in Saul Canelo Alvarez and he was knocked out by him in the 6th round last May.