By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye has had surgery to repair his torn right Achilles tendon from his loss to Tony Bellew last Saturday night in London, UK. Haye is not going to retire, as he wants a rematch with Bellew and he still has a goal of winning another heavyweight world title before he hands up his gloves.
Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) blew out his right Achilles in the 6th round last Saturday night after dominating the first 5 rounds. Haye appeared to be up 5 rounds to 0 at the time of the freak injury in round 6. Once Haye suffered the injury, Bellew was able to come on and eventually stop him in round 11.
There’s been a lot of second guessing going on about whether Haye’s corner did the right thing in throwing in the towel after he’d been knocked down in the 11th. Haye looked fine after he got back to his feet. The fight should have continued on, because Haye still had a chance of winning. He was connecting well with his shots in round 11 and in the previous rounds despite having a torn Achilles.
“I don’t think it’s the end of him. I spoke to David Haye earlier and he’s out of the operation, he’s out of theatre,” former super middleweight champion Carl Froch told Sky Sports News HQ. “The Achilles heel is fixed and he’s adamant he will be coming back and he wants to fight again. First and foremost for David Haye, he wants the rematch with Bellew.”
Of course, Haye wants a rematch with Bellew because he knows he was beating him up until the injury. Why wouldn’t Haye continue his career? The guy has a warrior’s heart. He’s not going to slink out of the sport and end his boxing career after losing to Bellew on an injury. I mean, Froch took a lot of criticism when he ended his own boxing career off of a win over the inexperienced George Groves rather than accepting a challenge from unbeaten – and very experienced – Gennady Golovkin.
Froch was content to end his career against Groves rather than Golovkin. If you look at Groves’ resume at the time that Froch fought him, he was pretty much just a domestic level fighter. Haye seems to have a different mentality than Froch. He wants to beat Bellew and move on to win a world title before he ends his pro career. Why would Haye want to out on an injury loss to Bellew rather than a knockout win over Anthony Joshua?
You’ve got to respect Haye for his willingness to take risks with his career. He doesn’t want to take the easy way out to avoid a potentially tough fight that could end badly for him. I’m not talking about a second fight with Bellew. I see that as an easy fight for Haye as long he doesn’t get injured. I’m talking about a difficult fight against Joshua. Haye wants that fight and is willing to risk getting knocked out to take it.
“He’s told me he wants to come again – 100 per cent. He said to me and I quote, ‘I will win a heavyweight world title,’ but I want the rematch with Bellew first,’” said Froch.