By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) questions Tony Bellew’s motivation for wanting to fight him a second time, because as far as he’s concerned, it was a robbery the last time they fought on March 4 of this year.
Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) beat Haye due to an injury Haye suffered in the 6th round to Achilles tendon. The fight lasted another 5 more rounds before it was stopped in the 11th round. Haye figures that Bellew is coming back to fight him possibly based on hatred more than anything else. Bellew is clearly no longer in need of money. The win for Bellew set him up for life in terms of money, as he’s now a wealthy man and can retire if he wishes. Bellew, 34, was saved by Haye’s injury. Without that, he would have been jabbed for 12 rounds and possibly knocked out.
”People rob banks to secure their family,” Haye said via skysports.com. “Would you go back to rob that same bank again? Is your hatred so bad for the clerk behind the desk that you need to do it again? Bellew’s motivations were clear – he wanted to secure his family. He’s a multi-millionaire – welcome to a very small club of British boxers who don’t have to box, they are comfortable. I ask myself: what are his motivations going into the second fight?” said Haye.
My theory is Bellew is looking to get another payday by fighting Haye again, and I think he’s hoping to get lucky. If Haye suffers an injury along the way, it might give Bellew a chance of winning depending on the severity of the problem. It would obviously need to be a really bad injury for Haye to lose to Bellew, because he’s now as far or as powerful as the former WBA heavyweight champion.
The fight could be over quickly in the 1st round if Haye goes after Bellew and traps him against the ropes. If Haye lets Bellew fight in the center of the ring without pressuring him, it’s going to be the same type of fight that the boxing world saw in the first five rounds. In that part of the fight, Bellew was just trying to land single pot shots. He was doing a lot of running.
Haye had a hard time landing his right hands due to Bellew backing off each time he would try and throw something at him. Haye figured out quickly that the best way to beat Bellew was to hit him with jabs, as he didn’t have the arm length or the jab to compete with him in that kind of fight. It was a one-sided fight until the 6th, when Haye injured his Achilles. At that point, Bellew was able to take advantage of the injured Haye.
“My motivations are for revenge, I want to be the best heavyweight in the world,” said Haye. ”He doesn’t want to fight Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder because he isn’t big enough. So why go back into the lion’s den? I ask myself: what are his motivations going into the second fight?”
I don’t understand why Bellew doesn’t want to fight Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder. That seems hard to understand. If Bellew can spoil against Haye, then he can do the same thing against Joshua and Wilder. The difference is those guys are taller, and they would be able to do a lot of damage to Bellew with their jabs. Deontay wouldn’t be content with just jabbing. He would go for broke at some point and start bouncing right hands off of Bellew’s chin. Some of the rights would miss, but Wilder reloads at close range after he misses. He doesn’t just give up and wait for the referee to separate him from his opponents. Bellew will obviously be looking to grab Haye in a clinch if he misses with one of his right hands. Haye can take advantage of that by continuing to work while being held.
“I can’t believe the analogy he has used,” Bellew said. “I didn’t rob a bank – I got in a boxing ring and punched you senseless.”
Personally, I didn’t see Bellew knock Haye senseless. Bellew only had 2 good rounds in the entire 11-rounds the fight lasted. That was round 6 and 11. Bellew was more or less controlling the fight after Haye was injured in the 6th, but wasn’t beating him senseless; it far from that. Bellew looked like he was tiring in the later rounds of the fight. It was probably all the weight that Bellew packed on for the fight. He wasn’t used to carrying around the extra weight, so it slowed him down. However, in the 11th, Bellew got his second wind and went after Haye, nailing him with shots after trapping him against the ropes. It was at that point where Haye slipped and fell out of the ring. Haye’s trainer at the time Shane McGuigan had the fight stopped. I thought it was a dumb move. Haye was one punch away from knocking Bellew out, and it was crazy to stop the fight. Haye should have been allowed to get back into ring and continue fighting. It was a mistake on McGuigan’s part to stop the contest.
“I love punching you in the face,” said Bellew to Haye. “David fell apart because I made him; pressure. When he caught me clean he got the shock of a lifetime. So why didn’t you blow me away? Because you missed like a clown. I continued to make you miss, which you didn’t think I could do.”
Bellew was fighting defensively, and not really doing anything other than trying to make Haye miss. That’s why Haye was able to control the fight with his jab. The reality is that Haye could have gotten to Bellew is he was willing to miss a number of shots and look bad in doing so. Haye gave up too quickly. Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin didn’t give up going after Saul Canelo Alvarez when he was missing him with right hands. Golovkin made sure he stayed in front of Canelo, and he was able to jab him at will. Haye just needed to keep the pressure on Bellew, stay in front of him at all times, and he would have eventually had a chance to land something big.
In the rematch, Haye needs to take the fight to the inside, because Bellew is going to be looking to retreat and lean away each time Haye even looks at him wrong. Haye needs to forget about giving Bellew so much respect like he was last time, and instead go after him. In Bellew’s loss to Adonis Stevenson in 2013, he was getting nailed with hard left hands from “Superman.” Adonis didn’t care that he was missing an occasional left hand. He would immediately throw a left hand in close after his miss. Haye was giving up after missing a shot. Haye was also throwing his punches from too far away. Stevenson made sure he got in close enough range to throw his speedy left hands. The shots were landing on a frequent basis. It seemed like Stevenson did his best work when he was in close. He would nail Bellew with a short left hand to the head. It was devastating. By the 3rd round, Bellew getting worked over by the stronger and faster Stevenson.
