By Scott Gilfoid: Tony Bellew’s win earlier this month over injured heavyweight David Haye may have been a costly one for him, as he could need surgery to repair a problem with his right hand from that fight. Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) won the fight by an 11th round TKO over Haye on March 4 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
The fight ended after Bellew knocked Haye partially threw the ropes in the 11th. Haye’s trainer threw in the towel to have the fight stopped. Haye had suffered a torn right Achilles earlier in the fight in the 6th round. The injury swung the balance of the fight from Haye to Bellew. Before the injury, Haye was controlling Bellew with his jab and it looked like he was going to cruise to an easy victory.
After Haye hurt his Achilles, Bellew took over the contest, and was able to dominate the rest of the way until the bitter end in round 11. The boxing fans don’t like to see fights decided on injuries, but that’s unfortunately what decided the Bellew vs. Haye fight in my opinion. Without the ankle injury, Haye likely would have won going away, as Bellew looked timid and feeble. Bellew was just running around each time Haye tried to initiate action. It was so awful to look at.
“The concern is they might have to open up his hand and have an operation,” said Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn to Sky Sports News HQ. “He’s got to test it out in about three or four weeks. If it’s still sore, then they are probably going to have to open the hand up and have some surgery on that. If that is the case, he will be out for five months,” said Hearn.
Well, the injury isn’t going to change all that much for Bellew in terms of what he does in 2017. It’s not as if he was going to be rushing into the ring anytime soon. Bellew and Hearn have been talking about wanting to get a big fight when he returns to action. Hearn has mentioned Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury and Joseph Parker as possible fights for Bellew. There’s also Anthony Joshua. Those fights aren’t going to plop into Bellew’s laps in the next month or two. Those are fights that would need time to negotiate.
There’s also the outside possibility of a rematch between Bellew and Haye, although it’s doubtful that will be happening in 2017. I get the impression that Bellew is going to save the Haye fight for after he gets a big money fight against the likes of Joshua, Parker, Fury or Wilder. The Haye fight is like a chestnut that Bellew is likely going to save until he needs it. When Bellew has no other options after a likely bad knockout loss to one of the aforementioned non-injured heavyweights, then I see him taking the rematch with Haye.
Parker, Wilder and Fury aren’t going to wait around for Bellew to finish licking his wounds before they schedule their next fights. They’ve got to keep busy. It might be in Bellew’s best interest to fight a stay busy fight against a domestic level heavyweight like David Allen to stay sharp while he waits for one of the big names to come available.
The problem with Bellew facing Allen is that he might lose to him. In fact, I think Bellew would lose to Allen. That’s the sad part. Even a domestic level fighter like Allen would have a VERY good chance of beating Bellew as long as he didn’t suffer a debilitating injury like the one Haye suffered. For Bellew to beat someone like Allen, he’d need to be able to stand in the pocket and actually fight. If all Bellew is going to do is hit and then scurry away all night long like he did in rounds 1-5 against Haye, then he’s going to lose.