By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Eddie Hearn is interested in putting his fighter Tony Bellew in world title fight next following his 11th round stoppage win over an injured David Haye last Saturday night. Bellew beat Haye after he suffered an Achilles injury to his right leg. Haye limped around the ring from rounds 6 until 11, when he was stopped.
Rather than waiting for Haye to heal and putting Bellew back in with him to prove that he can beat a healthy Haye, Hearn wants to match Bellew against one of the heavyweight world champions. Hearn says he’d like to match Bellew against either WBC champion Deontay Wilder or WBO champ Joseph Parker. Hearn feels confident that he’ll be able to get one of those two to agree to the fight.
“One of the most incredible wins I’ve ever seen,” said Hearn last Saturday night following Bellew’s victory over an injured Haye.
The fair thing for Hearn to do would be a do over for the Bellew-Haye fight. It’s painfully obvious that one of the main reasons the 34-year-old Bellew won last Saturday night against Haye is because of him suffering an Achilles injury to his right leg. Without the injury, Bellew likely would have lost the fight. Haye was dominating the fight up until the injury. Even in round 6, Haye was jabbing Bellew’s head off. The fight was boring to watch because it was so one-sided.
Bellew looked tired, helpless and over-matched until Haye hurt his Achilles in round 6. It was only after the injury that Bellew started doing well. Even thing, Bellew gassed out in round 6 and stayed tired until round 11. Bellew fought like an laboring older fighter with poor stamina. This was not heavyweights at the highest level. Haye was missing badly with his power shots the entire might, especially after he injured his Achilles.
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s earned a shot at the heavyweight world title,” said Hearn about Bellew. “Everyone before tonight was saying that David Haye is one of the best heavyweights in the world. The way that Haye is ranked with the sanctioning bodies, that would be a final eliminator of a heavyweight champions of the world, easy. Klitschko is fighting Anthony Joshua. Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder, these are the two fights [for Bellew].”
Hearn can do anything he wants. If he’s got the cash to lure Wilder or parker to the UK to fight Bellew, then more power to him. Unfortunately, a fight against Wilder probably isn’t doable right now, as he must face his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne next. The World Boxing Council just made Stiverne the No.1 mandatory for Wilder.
The only way Wilder can temporarily put that fight off is if he faces Parker or Anthony Joshua in a unification fight. The last time I checked, Bellew IS NOT a world champion at heavyweight. As such, he’s not in the position to fight Wilder right now. Bellew is not ranked No.1 by the WBC, so he can’t force the fight. The WBC has a habit of making sure their No.1 contenders fight their way to that position. Since the WBC didn’t make the Bellew vs. Haye fight a final eliminator, it would appear that Bellew is out of luck when it comes to him being able to force a fight against Wilder.
Parker might be a good option for Bellew if he gets past Hughie Fury. Bellew-Parker wouldn’t be a big fight in the UK, but if that’s all Hearn can do, then he might not have a choice. I wouldn’t make that fight if I were Hearn. Parker is too big, too strong, too young, and too skilled for Bellew. If Hearn throws Bellew inside the ring with Parker, he’s going to get his head boxed off by the younger fighter. Parker isn’t going to miss with his punches like Haye was. Parker will train hard during camp, and he’ll be very accurate with his punches.
Parker won’t be afraid to go after Bellew with his attacks. Before Haye injured his Achilles I round 6, Bellew was running around the ring to avoid his power shots each time he would attempt to land. Haye didn’t have the wheels to stay on top of Bellew to chase him in order to land. If Bellew tries running from Parker each time he goes on the attack, he’s going to be chased down and belted. The New Zealand fighter isn’t going to let Bellew dash away each time he tries to land one of his big power shots. Parker is going to go after him and force him to fight. Parker’s jab is just as good as Haye’s, and that’s bad news for Bellew, because he was getting worked over last night by the Hayemaker’s jab.
“Do you want to go back to cruiserweight to fight the winner of [Marco] Huck and [Mairis] Breidis or do you want to fight Deontay Wilder or Joseph Parker,” Hearn said to Bellew via the liverpoolecho.co.uk. “I could bring Parker or Wilder to the UK to fight Tony Bellew without any shadow of a doubt. Wilder is making $1 to $1.5 million a fight. The numbers that this fight did were huge, just huge.”
I do not see Bellew going back down to cruiserweight to defend against the winner of the April 1 fight between Marco Huck and Mairis Briedis. No way. Those guys are too good, and they’ll likely destroy Bellew. Moreover, those are not big money fights for Bellew. If Bellew moves down to fight the winner of the Huck-Briedis, the likely outcome is him getting knocked out in a smaller money fight. Without a miracle debilitating injury that saves Bellew like it did last Saturday in the Haye fight, he gets beaten soundly by the Huck vs. Briedis winner.
Haye isn’t in a good position to get a rematch against Bellew. He lost the fight, and he has an injury that will need time to heal. The way the Bellew-Haye fight was decided due to Haye’s leg injury, it’s going to be a tough sell to try and get the British boxing public to want to pour their hard-earned money in seeing a rematch between them. If the fans start believing that Haye had the Achilles injury BEFORE the Bellew fight last night, that would be another reason for them not to want to shell out their money to see a rematch.
I don’t see the interest being high enough with the fans to want to see Haye and Bellew do it again. But more importantly, I think Hearn is going to try and have Bellew cash in with his ‘victory’ over Haye by getting him a big money title shot against Anthony Joshua, Wilder or Parker. If Hearn risks Bellew’s hide a second time against Haye, he might not get so lucky with him suffering another debilitating injury. Let’s be honest about this. If Haye hadn’t been injured, Bellew was heading for a loss in the fight. He didn’t have the stamina, power or the willingness to go after Haye until he suffered the injury to his Achilles. Once Haye was hobbling around on one leg, then Bellew got bold and started trying to hit him with power shots.