By Scott Gilfoid: WBC cruiserweight belt holder Tony Bellew’s fans totally drowned out David Haye with their shouting at him at Monday’s final press conference before the Haye-Bellew fight this Saturday. It was just bad to watch. Bellew’s fans were quiet and respectful when he was up at the podium speaking about Saturday’s fight on Sky Box Office pay-per-view at the O2 Arena in London, England.
When Haye got up to speak, Bellew’s boxing fans shouted him down, making it all but impossible for him to be understood by the press members like myself. I could barely hear every fourth word that Haye was saying. I did hear Haye angrily say this about Bellew to his fans:
“If you really believe in him, bet all your money on Tony Bellew to win this fight,” said Haye. “You’ll be broken man. It’s a step down [for me]. The guys [Arnold Gjergjai and Mark De Mori] I just beat, woul beat you. It’ll be you lying on the canvas,” said Haye.
Bellew did most of the talking in the press conference due to Haye being drowned out by his fans. Frankly, I think the whole press conference should have been cleared out of fans, leaving just the media members, because it was too much noise to hear what the fighters were saying. Unless you had Haye in a soundproof both, it was impossible to hear him speak. In hindsight, they need to do a better job with the press conferences to make sure that only the media is there so that the fighters can talk and be heard without dealing with all the cat calls and such.
“Yeah, of course he has got under my skin,” Haye said to Sky Sports News HQ. “I hope I don’t knock him out or hope I get tired of beating him up, but all it takes is one of my shots around the side of his head and it is good night.”
Yeah, this isn’t going to be a royal beat down by Haye on Saturday night of Bellew. I don’t see the fight being one that lasts the distance, and I don’t believe that Bellew will survive to the 6th round like he did against Adonis Stevenson in 2013. Stevenson probably could have knocked Bellew out a lot faster than 6 rounds if he hadn’t fought so passively in the first 5 rounds. It wasn’t until round 6 that Stevenson really went after Bellew. Haye is a much different fighter than Stevenson mentally. Haye isn’t going to give Bellew space like Stevenson did. Haye is going go after Bellew right off the bat, and that’s going to put him under extreme duress in this fight. I think it’s going to be next to impossible for Bellew to make it past round 1. If Bellew sees the 2nd round, I see that as a moral victory for him and his loyal boxing fans.
“The gas tank is very, very low, and I doesn’t last long,” said Bellew about Haye. “I expect the best of David Haye, but I understand it’s not going to be there for very long. When the gas runs out, the fat Scouser will steam through him like a steam train. I’m not going to stop. I promise you that. When you start missing with those right hands, and when you start sweating…you can’t throw a straight punch anymore [with your right hand]. You’re a broken man. It was business until he threw a punch at the press conference. Please don’t bring me any excuses after Saturday. On Saturday night, side show Bob gets stopped. You know why, because I’m the champion,” said Bellew.
Some boxing fans would argue that Bellew is the ‘paper champion’ at cruiserweight and not the real thing. Many of the fans see Oleksandr Usyk, Murat Gassiev and Denis Lebedev as the real champions at cruiserweight. Bellew is viewed as a belt holder rather than THE CHAMPION at cruiserweight. I can’t argue with the fans. If that’s what they believe, who am I to argue against them?
Haye says he wants to give Bellew such a beating on Saturday night that he’ll end his boxing career. A bad knockout loss for Bellew might end his career anyway. It would terrible news for Bellew if he gets knocked out badly by Haye, because it probably mean that it would be pointless for the Liverpool fighter to stay at heavyweight. If Bellew goes back down to cruiserweight to defend his WBC title against the winner of the Marco Huck vs. Mairis Briedis fight, I don’t see him being in any position to be successful against one of those talents. Heck, I think Bellew would lose badly to either of those guys right now even before he’s tasted any of Haye’s big power shots. Bellew has never fought anyone truly talented in the cruiserweight division in my view. I see Bellew coming apart at the seams when he faces the winner of the Huck-Briedis fight. For that reason, you can argue that Haye will be ending Bellew’s boxing career on Saturday night by knocking him out.
“I need to go out there and do a complete and utter destruction job on Tony Bellew. I want to make sure that is it – it’s over for him and that he is never fighting again,” said Haye.