By Stanley White: Tony Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) won’t be fighting former 2 division world champion David “Hayemaker” Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) on December 17 like he previously planned, as the former heavyweight champion fell during training and injured a bicep.
Haye, 37, has already had surgery to repair the problem. The Bellew-Haye rematch might still take place, but not until next year if at all. With Haye’s history of suffering injuries during training camp, the chances are that he might not make it to the next fight with Bellew.
For Haye, this was the 4th time that he’s had fights fall through due to him suffering injuries. Haye twice had scheduled fights with Tyson Fury fail to take place due to an injury, and he also had a fight with Manuel Charr erased because of injury. If this is the end of Haye’s career, he’ll be remembered by a lot of boxing fans for his last fight against Bellew last March in which he suffered a torn Achilles tendon. Haye limped around the ring from the 6th round until the fight was stopped in the 11th round after he slipped out of the ring.
”It’s a big disappointment but as always I leave my career in the hands of Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing who will get me back in there ASAP,” said Bellew to skysports.com.
Tyson Fury has already called out Bellew for May 5th, but that’s not a fight that you can count on happening. Fury hasn’t fought in 2 years, and he still doesn’t have his boxing license.
These are the options for Bellew’s next fight:
• Dillian Whyte
• Dave Allen
• Dereck Chisora
• Jarrell Miller
• Deontay Wilder
• David Haye – If Bellew is interested in waiting for Haye to get healthy in 2018, then he can go ahead and take the rematch. Again, it would be risky for Bellew to wait on that fight, because Haye may suffer another injury.
Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn promotes 4 of the above-mentioned fighters [Chisora, Allen, Miller and Whyte], and it would be extremely easy for him to make those fights. Hearn has been trying to get WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder to agree to fight Dillian Whyte but with no luck. Perhaps if Hearn is willing to match Bellew against Wilder, he could use that as the warm-up fight for the Bronze Bomber in early 2018.
Wilder says there’s the possibility that he and Joshua will be both taking warm-up fights in their next fight date, with them both fighting on the same card. Bellew would be a good option for Wilder to fight for that warm-up. Of that list, Dave Allen is probably the only one that would be safe enough for Bellew to fight on short notice in replacing Haye on the December 17 card. Bellew should be able to beat a guy like Dave Allen if he’s in shape and able to move a lot. Allen has heavy hands, but he’s slow and very hittable. Bellew would have an excellent chance of doing a number on Allen if the fight can get made.
If Hearn is willing to put Bellew in with Dillian Whyte, that would be one way for him to increase the popularity for “The Body Snatcher.” Bellew vs. Whyte would attract a lot of attention in the UK, and the winner of the contest would be a viable option for Joshua soon. A fight between the winner of a Bellew-Whyte contest would need to face Joshua soon after their fight to take full advantage of the interest in their fight.
“I’m gutted that the rematch with David has been postponed, both for myself but more for the fans,” said Bellew to skysports.com. “I’ve had a tough camp with a lot going on in my life but was ready to repeat my win from March.”
Bellew went through a tough training camp for nothing. Now he has nothing to show for all the time he spent training for the Haye rematch. It would be better potentially for Bellew to cut his losses and move on if he can dissolve his contract with Haye. Hopefully for Bellew’s sake, he has contract language written into the contract that will allow him to now walk away from the fight and look to face someone else. If Bellew ends up waiting for Haye to heal up for their rematch to take place in the first half of 2018, he could end up with more wasted time if the Hayemaker suffers another injury during training camp. Bellew has already been out of the ring for the last 7 months. It looks like the only thing Bellew must show for himself for 2017 is his one fight with Haye. Bellew should have been able to get 2 fights in.
Bellew should have known going into this training camp that there was the possibility of Haye suffering an injury that would cause their fight to be postponed or canceled. If Bellew was aware of the potential for Haye suffering an injury, he should be ready to fight a Plan-B opponent. Hopefully, there is a fallback plan for Bellew. Anthony Joshua went into training camp for his fight with Kubrat Pulev with a Plan-B option in Carlos Takam. If Bellew has a good Plan-B, then he should be able to fight in December or January and not waste his training camp.