By Adam Godfrey: David Haye has been fined £25000 following his behavior and statements made by him during an intense build up to his March 4th Heavyweight fight with Tony Bellew, which he lost against his Liverpudlian rival to an eleventh round stoppage. Haye sustained an Achilles injury in the sixth after what was a mostly even fight up until that point.
Haye has admitted the charge and accepted the fine, which was premeditated by him immediately following his eventual loss to the WBC Emeritus Cruiserweight Champion Bellew, where, in an interview with the BBC, Haye admitted:
‘Some of the comments went too far… If I have to pay a fine, I’ll happily pay and take whatever punishment I need to.
When you get into that beast mode before the fight, you’re not thinking about political correctness, you’re not thinking about fines, you’re just thinking about getting in the ring’.
According to a notice posted today on the BBBofC website:
‘The Stewards of the British Boxing Board of Control considered the behavior and comments made by Boxer David Haye for his contest with Tony Bellew on the 4th March 2017 at the O2 Arena, London at their Board meeting on Wednesday, 14th June 2017.
Mr. Haye admitted that his behavior amounted to misconduct and brought Boxing into disrepute.
The Stewards fined Mr. Haye the sum of £25,000.00p’.
Another notice posted on the website dated 1st March shows that Haye apologized for his conduct prior to the fight and had already made a charitable donation before he had entered the ring (http://www.bbbofc.com/content/southern-area-council-1st-march-2017).
Bellew was himself given a suspended suspension (you read that correctly, it does indeed make sense) after confronting Haye at ringside following his defeat of fellow Cruiserweight BJ Flores in October 2016. That confrontation was the beginning of a catalogue of bad blood between the two and several explosive encounters in the run up to their eventual meeting in the ring. The two literally went head to head in a November press conference, which ended with Haye decking Bellew with a left hand.
Relations between the two soured further as the promotion advanced, reaching a low when Haye described in graphic detail the injuries that he intended to inflict on Bellew, and it was these comments that were apparently the final straw that led to BBBofC to intervene and chastise Haye for his behavior.
There was an element of circus surrounding the build-up to the fight and a feeling that a decent into the abyss was inevitable, and so it proved. Both men have a history of clashing with their up-coming opponents; Bellew had a series of blowouts with Welshmen Nathan Cleverley prior to their two bouts (a rivalry which concluded with a win to each). Cleverley described Bellew as a ‘Madman’.
With an even more notorious rap sheet, Haye’s penchant for verbally abusing his opponents came prominently to light when in 2009 he described Russian WBA Heavyweight Champion Nikolay Valuev as ‘the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange-looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking’. He sparked outrage when he claimed that his 2010 fight against Audley Harrison would be ‘more one sided than a gang rape’, drawing the ire of the media and women’s rights charities alike.
Prior to fighting Wladamir Klitschko for his titles in July 2011 he was heavily criticized for wearing a T-Shirt depicting himself clutching the decapitated heads of the Klitschko brothers, a move which led to Klitschko labeling him as an ‘embarrassment’.
And his position as one of the sport’s most controversially figures was sealed for good when he brawled with Derek Chisora at the Klitschko v Chisora post fight press conference. Both men goaded each before Chisora left his seat at the table and confronted Haye face-to-face, resulting in a mass brawl between the two men and others present, including Haye’s trainer Adam Booth. Booth injured himself in the melee, initially blaming Chisora, before it was eventually revealed that the injury was caused by David Haye as he wielded a camera tripod.
The fight was confirmed between the two on the 8th of May, the two men separated by a steel fence at the announcement press conference.
The sense of circus that pervaded that night has seemingly accompanied Haye since, and should Haye and Bellew meet for a rematch, it is likely that no amount of fining or threats of suspension will deter the pair from refraining to tell each other, ad infinitum, where they feel the other fails as a person. After all, should they be banned by the BBBofC, they can always petition to fight under the license of the Luxembourg Boxing authorities.
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