By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye outweighed Tony Bellew by 11 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in for their fight this Saturday night on Sky Box Office pay-per-view from the O2 Arena in London, England. Haye (28-2 26 KOs) weighed in at 224 ½ lbs. and looked in great shape without nary a pound of fat on him.
I wish I could say the same thing about the 34-year-old Bellew, as he looked kind of the thick around the middle, especially when he was standing sideways during the face off. You could see the fat hanging over the sides of his waist. Bellew looked to be carrying around a good 20 lbs. of useless fat that he should have taken off during training camp.
Bellew weighed in at 213 ½ lbs. That’s 12 rounds less than the 225 that Bellew had been talking about him weighing. It’s for the best. Bellew had lucked really chunky during the early part of his training camp. At least he took some of the fat off.
The real question how is Bellew, 6’2”, going to be able to compete with the faster, stronger, more athletic and the far more experienced Haye. Bellew is not only going to be effectively outweighed in terms of useful muscle on his frame, he also is going to be out of his league in the power, speed, athleticism and experience areas in this fight. As such, I don’t see Bellew having a prayer against Haye. Barring an injury to Haye, Bellew is going to be Haye’s 27th knockout on Saturday night. The only thing that I’m wondering about , as well as many boxing fans, is whether Bellew will make it out of the 1st round without getting knocked to oblivion. I’m predicting that Bellew doesn’t see round 2.
“I could have been heavier if I wanted to,” said Bellew to skysports.com. “He’ll get hit back, for the first time in six years, and he won’t be happy. I thought he’d be lighter, I’m over the moon about his weight. He’s going to gas,” said Bellew. “I’m never going to look like that, he looks like an Adonis.”
It’s going to be pretty tough for Bellew to win this fight, because he’s not carrying the weight well. Bellew was a fat looking light heavyweight. When he moved up to cruiserweight, his physique looked even worse with it looking noticeably pare-shaped. But with Bellew bulking up to heavyweight, he just looks like someone that ate his way to the division rather than trained his way. He’s got a lot of useless fat hanging around his midsection which shouldn’t be there. That’s bad news for Bellew and his boxing fans, I hate to say. What I don’t understand is how Bellew has been bragging about having worked so hard during training camp for this fight. I mean, how can Bellew have been working so hard during camp and still look so fat? If I was working out like a dog, I would come in lighter, trimmer for a fight. I wouldn’t be sporting a paunch like the one that Bellew is. I’m just saying. How do you get as fat as Bellew if you’ve put in the hard work in training camp? Something is not right.
“He’ll find out what it’s like to be hit by a heavyweight, it’s a whole different sport,” said Haye via skysports.com. “He’s unprepared, and he doesn’t know it. He’s eaten a bunch of pies to get up to heavyweight.
If Bellew can beat Haye on Saturday night, then he’ll very likely remain at heavyweight and give up his WBC cruiserweight title. That would effectively take a HUGE weight off Bellew’s narrow shoulders, as he must fight the winner of the April 1 fight between #1 WBC Mairis Briedis and #2 WBC Marco Huck if he does move back down to cruiserweight to defend his WBC strap. Those guys are both very talented fighters with major power. I can see Bellew getting knocked out by either of them.
If Bellew gets destroyed by Haye like many boxing fans are predicting, he could be looking at consecutive knockout losses if he chooses to fight the winner of the Briedis-Huck fight. That would be pretty much the end of Bellew’s career I imagine. Yeah, Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn would likely match him up against Nathan Cleverly if he could melt back down to 175, but I don’t think Bellew would win that fight at this point. Taking all that weight off to get down to 175 would be really hard on Bellew’s body, and I don’t think he could do it without weakening himself.
More than likely, I see Bellew staying at heavyweight even if he gets blasted out in one round. I think he’ll look to take some scalps of five or six soft jobs and get a top 15 ranking in the heavyweight division. If Bellew can even get a bottom 15 ranking in the division, I think that’s all that will be needed for his promoter Eddie Hearn to match him up against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua for a title shot. The fight would interest few boxing fans outside of the UK. It would definitely be a big deal in the UK.
Bellew should have come in much lighter for this fight against Haye. Carrying around useless fat is frankly stupid. All the fat that Bellew has put on his frame is going to be like a big anchor, weighing him down, and making it hard for him to move about the ring on Saturday night. The wise thing for Bellew to have done would be to come into the fight at a time 195. Yeah, Bellew would be giving away 30 lbs. of weight to Haye, but it’s been done before. Look at Jack Dempsey in his fight against Jess Willard. He was outweighed by a ton of weight, and he still smashed the 6’6″ Willard with ease. Dempsey won the fight based on his speed and agility. Bellew should have done the same thing by coming in light.
In other weights on the card, British welterweight Sam Eggington (19-3, 11 KOs) weighed in at 146 ½ pounds for his 12 round fight against former two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi (36-7, 7 KOs). Malignaggi, 36, weighed in at 146 ½ lbs. They both looked good. The 23-year-old Eggington will be defending his WBC International welterweight title. Eggington is taking a step up in terms of fighting an experienced fighter, but I expect his youth, size and high work rate to be too much for Malignaggi. For a fringe level 147 lb. fighter, Eggington is a tough fighter to deal with unless you can run around the ring all night. Malignaggi isn’t a stationary fighter, so he’ll make it tough on Eggington to land his shots. I still see Eggington winning a comfortable 12 round decision.