Haye-Bellew receive warning from BBBofC

By Boxing News - 01/19/2017 - Comments

Image: Haye-Bellew receive warning from BBBofC

By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight David Haye and Tony Bellew have both reportedly received warnings from the British Boxing Board of Control before they meet up in “The Gloves Are Off” special. Bellew and Haye got into it during their kickoff press conference on November 4 for their fight on March 4 at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Bellew shoved Haye when he got too close to him, and this led to Haye appearing to swat him with a left to the chin. This all could have been avoided if promoter Eddie Hearn had made sure that the two fighters were kept separated, but he wanted them to have a face off because he thinks it’s needed to help drum up interested in the fight.

I don’t think it is necessary though. Boxing fans are going to purchase this fight on Sky Box Office PPV whether the two fighters are facing off or not. Heck, Haye and Bellew could have side by side video where they talk at each other without being in the same room, and the fans are still going to purchase the fight. For a lot of British boxing fans, they like the match-up for some reason. I hate it.

Haye is way too good for Bellew, who I rate as the weakest of the cruiserweight champions by far. I see Bellew as a paper champion a cruiserweight. Now he’s about to move up to heavyweight and take on Haye without any prior experience in the division. That is dumb, dumb and dumb. But I don’t see the Haye-Bellew fight as a real fight. It’s a business type of fight rather than a sporting fight.

“David is not really going to listen to me, but I feel like I have got a relationship with Tony where I can,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “But when you’re a foot away from another man that you dislike and the insults are being traded across the floor, anything can happen. That’s also the beauty of the show. We need to keep the rawness of that and also remember that we have a reputation to keep, and an image to protect for the sport of boxing.”

I think it’s insane to put Bellew and Haye in the same room with each other, but that’s what Hearn wants. If Haye ends up swatting Bellew again, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Once Bellew gets in Haye’s face and starts yapping like he did last time, anything is possible. I don’t know if Haye can hold back if Bellew starts blabbering at close range. Haye seems like the type that doesn’t put up with that kind of stuff. As far as I can tell, none of his other opponents dared to invade his personal space during their meetings with him, but Bellew went to that level and he paid a price.

It would be sad if Haye lays Bellew out during “The Gloves are Off” special, because it could lead to him losing his boxing license. They just need to be kept apart and I think it would be alright. If I was the promoter for the event, I would keep the two fighters miles apart and just have them on video screens in a side by side type of deal. That way if Bellew starts trash talking Haye, it won’t be any risk of Haye nailing him with anything.

Bellew says he’s already 225 pounds for the fight. He’s put on weight. That’s pretty heavy. Without Bellew having tested his new weight in a real heavyweight contest before his match-up with Haye on March 4, he’s going to be flying by the seat of his pants when he’s out there. All that extra weight that Bellew puts on is going to make him slower than he already is, and this is going to play into Haye’s hands perfectly. I think Haye is going to knock Bellew out immediately in round 1.

The boxing fans that pay to see this fight are probably going to be really angry and some of them are going to feel that they wasted their money purchasing it. I can definitely understand that. Common sense tells you that Bellew stands NO chance at all against Haye. If anyone is going to be angry about the fight being a mismatch, they should be upset with themselves, because it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Bellew is going to be knocked out early in this fight. The only question is HOW early he does down. I see Bellew being knocked out in round 1 unless he runs from Haye, which I don’t think he will do.

Rather than seeing this business fight between Haye and Bellew, I’d much prefer to see a sporting fight involving Haye fighting Luis Ortiz. That’s a real fight for sports and for boxing fans. With Bellew, I want to see him fight the winner or the loser of the Marco Huck vs. Mairis Briedis fight. I think both guys knock Bellew out, but I’d still like to see the match-up. It would give boxing fans a chance to see what Bellew can do against a talented cruiserweight for a change instead of the guys that he’s been facing since he moved up to cruiserweight. Hearn has done a good job of matching Bellew carefully against guys that are nowhere near as talented as Briedis, Huck, Denis Lebedev, Murat Gassiev, Oleksandr Usyk, Krzystof Glowacki and Beibut Shumenov. I see those guys are the true top fighters in the division.