By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight David Haye and Tony Bellew are signed for a fight on March 4th at the O2 Arena in London, England. The match-up between Haye and Bellew will be taking place at heavyweight rather than Haye’s old division at cruiserweight, because there is little chance that he could still make weight for the division at 36.
Haye notes that the 33-year-old Bellew was talking boldly about him before they signed for the fight, but now that the fight is signed, he sees him as cowering because he knows what’s in store for him on March 4.
Bellew is going to get blasted out, according to Haye. It’s going to be an easy 1-2 knockout for Hye with him blasting Bellew to the head with a right hand followed by a left to the body that will drop the Liverpool fighter for the full 10 count on the canvas.
Haye remarked with this comment to skysports.com about his upcoming mismatch against Bellew on March 4:
“He’s a coward, he realizes what is going to happen on the night. I’m going to absolutely destroy him,” said Haye about Bellew. “It’s all big talk prior to the fight. Now the fight is signed,I can already feel him cowering away because he knows the task in hand is too big, too strong, too fast, too powerful, and he’s going to end up knocked spark out.”
Well, I hate to say it but it’s kind of academic what’s going to happen to the 33-year-old Bellew when he gets out there with Haye inside the squared ring. This isn’t even about the two separate weight classes the two fighters occupy. I mean, Haye would have the power, talent and hand speed to knock Bellew into the next century even if Haye were still fighting at cruiserweight. This is more about a difference in talent between them.
Haye is simply much better than Bellew in my estimation, and I think it’s going to be clear once the bell rings in the 1st round for this fight on March 4. It’s too bad that this mismatch is going to go ahead, because there weight classes for a reason in boxing. When you have a stick-like looking Bellew moving up to heavyweight, it’s just a bad idea.
Heck, Bellew isn’t even muscular for the cruiserweight division. He’s got noticeable flab hanging around the sides of his midsection. Bellew just looks like a light heavyweight that ate his way to cruiserweight by dining on a lot of carbs. I don’t see the muscle on Bellew’s frame that I see with normal cruiserweights. He has the look of a fighter who ate his way into the division rather than filling with exercise. With Bellew now bulking up to fight at heavyweight in the next four months, his body is likely going to look even fatter around the midsection. In other words, his pear-shape physique might become even more noticeable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7dhTvlFc1A
I just wish that Bellew actually had to earn a fight against Haye rather than getting it straightaway. If they threw Bellew in with a nice domestic level heavyweight like Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora or Dave Allen, he could prove that he deserves a fight against Haye by beating one of them. Unfortunately, I don’t think Bellew could even beat the likes of Allen. I’m not high on Allen at all, but I still think he would land something big on Bellew’s chin to take him out. Allen would be able to take Bellew’s power, but I don’t see it being the other way around.
The Haye-Bellew fight has the makings of a 1st round knockout for Haye. This is a fight that wouldn’t sell at all in the U.S. The fans wouldn’t be interested in seeing a mismatch between a still unproven cruiserweight against a former heavyweight world champion in Haye, who still hasn’t faced anyone good since making his comeback earlier this year. Haye was out of the ring for close to four years before coming back in 2016 to defeat two little known fringe contenders named Mark De Mori and Arnold Gjergjai. Haye destroyed both of those guys, but the wins proved nothing. Haye still hasn’t faced a good heavyweight yet.
With Haye now signed for a fight against Bellew, it appears that he won’t be fighting in December like what was talked about. I guess it really doesn’t matter, because at this point, it would next to impossible to get a notable heavyweight contender to agree to the fight with Haye unless they were willing to throw a lot of money at one of them. Boxing fans wanted to see Haye fight 44-year-old Shannon Briggs. That’s not going to happen though, because Briggs will be fighting for the vacant WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight title against an opponent still to be determined.
Now that Bellew is fighting Haye, it means that Bellew’s WBC cruiserweight title won’t be defended for a while. We’re probably looking at July or August of 2017 before Bellew defends it next. So we’re looking at Bellew letting eight to nine months go by before defending his WBC title.
Bellew last defended his strap in October against BJ Flores. I guess the World Boxing Council is going to let Bellew freeze his title and allow a ton of time to go by before he defends it. That’s got to be really disappointing news for Bellew’s mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis. He’s got to sit and wait for his title shot while Bellew fights at heavyweight. It seems to me that when a champion decides to fight outside of their division, they should be stripped of their titles rather than having the titles frozen. If this were league play in the NFL or NBA, a team couldn’t tell another team in the league to sit tight while they go play a team that’s outside of the league. That wouldn’t fly. The sanctioning bodies allow champions to fight outside of their division while holding onto titles. I think the sanctioning bodies need to create rules that keep their champions fighting in the division they’re holding belts. If they want to fight someone else outside of the division, then you can argue that they should be stripped of their titles.