By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew says he broke his right hand early in his win over David Haye last Saturday night. The injury didn’t prevent the 34-year-old Bellew from using his right hand the entire contest, so it’s unclear how bad the injury is. Bellew stopped Haye after knocking him down in the 11th round.
Haye’s trainer Shane McGuigan pulled the plug on the fight by throwing in the towel. He obviously knew at that point that Haye was too injured for him to be able to knockout Bellew. Goodness knows, Haye was trying hard to stop Bellew, but he couldn’t set his feet properly to get the power he needed on his fight.
Haye vs. Bellew took place at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The fight was televised on Sky Box Office PPV for boxing fans in the UK.
Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) came out the worst in the injury department with him suffering a torn right Achilles tendon in round 6. Haye has already had surgery to repair the problem. Bellew’s hand injury was not as debilitating as Haye’s Achilles problem. Bellew was still able to get a lot of power on his right hand punches despite having hurt it earlier in the fight.
They’re calling Bellew’s win the biggest upset victory of his career, which is definitely true.
Bellew has had anything close to this, but then again, he hasn’t exactly fought a lot of super talents. Bellew’s biggest fights of his career have come against these fighters: Adonis Stevenson, Nathan Cleverly, David Haye, BJ Flores, Ovill McKenzie and Ilunga Makabu. Out of that bunch, only the Stevenson, Haye and Cleverly fights were really big ones.
Bellew’s win over Haye was because of the injury, so you can’t even call it a real victory. Yeah, it’s a victory, but it should have an asterisk next to it in the win column because there were circumstances behind Bellew getting the win. Without Haye suffering a turn right Achilles tendon, Bellew likely would have lost the fight. That’s just the reality of the situation. Haye was cruising to a victory at the time that he hurt his Achilles in round 6.
Bellew said this via ESPN.com about suffering a broken right hand.
“I’m just happy David’s home and healthy and safe. We did receive injuries. I broke my right hand in the second or third round. It’s very sore now,” said Bellew. “I had a bad right knee myself going in but this is not what people want to hear. This is why I asked David from the very start, ‘are you okay?’ And believe me for four rounds he was fine.”
Haye didn’t blame his loss on his injured right ankle. Bellew said before the fight he didn’t want to hear any excuses afterwards. Haye could have mentioned his injury if he wanted to, but Bellew would have likely given him grief about it; as well the boxing fans that saw the fight live at the O2. The fans were actually cheering Haye after the fight when he was being interviewed. I think boxing fans don’t like to hear fighter’s injury excuses after they lose.
Who can forget Haye’s excuse about having an injured baby toe after his 12 round decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011? Haye was ridiculed for a long time after that. Haye’s toe excuse was remembered more than the details about the fight. That’s kind of sad when the fans remember the excuse you make more than they do in what happened in the fight. Haye obviously learned from that experience and he made sure he didn’t make the same mistake after losing to Bellew last Saturday.
“I don’t feel the pain, all I think about is winning,” said Bellew about his broken right hand. “I’ve achieved what I got in boxing for tonight. I just made my three kids wealthy. If it was about me, I could have quit after Goodison [his win over Ilunga Makabu last May]. I made my three kids wealthy.
If Bellew can get a title shot against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, he’ll be big time wealthy. Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker as possible fights for Bellew. Hearn feels that Bellew earned a title shot with his win over the injured Haye. I think some boxing fans would disagree with that. Bellew’s win only proved that he could beat an injured Haye. It didn’t prove that he could beat a healthy Haye.
You can argue that British heavyweight Dave Allen would have beaten Haye last Saturday night if he’d shared the same ring with him. All Allen what had had to do is hang around until Haye’s leg gave out on him for him to get the victory. Would Eddie Hearn be pushing to get Allen a title shot if he beat Haye based off an injury or would he see the win for what it was? I see this as about business more than sport.
I think Hearn and Bellew will take the win anyway they could get it over Haye, and then use the victory as justification for a title shot. I don’t think the victory is nearly enough for Bellew to be given a crack at a world title. I don’t think it’s fair to the boxing fans that will pay to see Belle fight Joshua, Wilder or Parker. When Bellew gets blown out of the water by one of those champions, the boxing fans are likely going be hopping mad about them having paid to see the mismatch.
“Just before the stoppage, I looked at David and said, ‘Please stop. I’m not here to hurt people’. He shook his head and laughed. I looked at Shane and said, ‘Stop it,’” said Bellew.
Bellew is going to be out of action for a while with his hand injury. Joshua will be fighting next month on April 29 against Wladimir Klitschko. Joshua can’t afford to wait four to five months for Bellew to heal up for him to fight. Joshua is going to need to go in another direction rather than fighting the injured Bellew. Deontay Wilder cannot fight Bellew, because he’s run out of voluntary defenses after being given 5 of them. Wilder’s next fight will either be a unification fight or a defense against his mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne. The only guy Bellew can fight is Joseph Parker. That’s a dangerous fight that Bellew can certainly lose and lose badly. The money might not be huge, and the beating he likely will get by Parker could be a bad one.
If Hearn just wants to have Bellew make the most money possible, then he’s going to need to have him sit back and wait until Joshua is free and then stick the two of them together. It would be a dreadful mismatch, because Bellew still hasn’t truly proven himself at heavyweight. You can’t call his win over an injured one-legged Haye as a real win, because it’s tainted.