By Juan Flores: David Haye has pulled out of his rematch with Tony Bellew due to a bicep injury he suffered during training. Haye, 37, says the rematch with Bellew will be postponed until either March 24 or May 5 in 2018.
Haye is currently planning to begin rehabilitation on the injury so he can get back into the ring as fast as possible.
Haye and Bellew were supposed to be fighting a rematch on December 17 at the O2 Arena in London, England. The two fought earlier this year on March 4 with Bellew winning by an 11th round stoppage. The victory for Bellew was aided by Haye blowing out his Achilles tendon in round 6. The injury prevented Bellew from receiving credit from the boxing public, because he was losing the fight before Haye suffered the Achilles problem.
“I am devastated to announce my much-anticipated rematch against Tony Bellew has been postponed until March 24th or May 5th 2018, subject to scheduling,” said Haye to skysports.com.
It’s unclear how well the tickets for Haye-Bellew 2 were selling. If the sales were bad, then the injury for Haye will be viewed by some boxing fans as a way of waiting for a better time for the fight.
If Haye can return to the ring on either of those 2 dates, it would be great news. The boxing fans wouldn’t have to wait much longer to see the two fighters face each other. It would work to Bellew and Haye’s benefit for the fight to take place in March or May, since it would allow them more time to ramp up the fight to get the public more interested in seeing them fight. Thus far, there hasn’t been a lot of talk about the Bellew-Haye rematch. One reason for that is the previously scheduled date for the fight on December 17.
Having the fight so close to Christmas, it has a lot of boxing fans busy with shopping for presents and traveling to spend time with love ones. With Bellew vs. Haye 2 being a PPV event in the UK on Sky Box Office, the fans might not have been as eager to spend their money purchasing the fight due to fight being so closed to Christmas. Putting a fight that close to a holiday like that probably the smartest thing to do. The injury for Haye will work out in his favor in terms of the money he can make facing Bellew in early 2018.
“After a freak accident during a stair conditioning session, which I’ve done hundreds of times before, I lost my footing, slipped and instinctively grabbed the banister to stop myself falling down the stairwell and in doing so managed to damage my bicep,” said Haye.
Bellew said his promoter Eddie Hearn will be the one that decides what to do next with his career. There isn’t much time for Bellew to take another fight if he’s going to be potentially fighting Haye in a rematch in March or May. Bellew would presumably be looking to fight someone in the heavyweight division rather than takeoff weight and move back down to cruiserweight.
Bellew doesn’t have the frame or the overall punching power to fight any of the top heavyweights in the division right now. Even the fringe contenders would be risky for Bellew to fight. If Bellew were to take a stay busy fight against someone like #14 WBA Carlos Takam, #15 WBO Andy Ruiz or #14 WBC Adam Kownacki, he could lose to all of them. Those guys are natural heavyweights with good size and punching power.
Bellew would be taking an incredible risk by facing even the bottom feeders in the heavyweight division. It would be better for Bellew to fight a non-ranked journeyman or someone making their pro debut at heavyweight rather than him fighting someone from the top 15. There’s too much money on the line for Bellew with his rematch with Haye. He can’t afford to mess that up.