By Tim Royner: David Haye’s former trainer Adam Booth thinks he made a mistake of coming back to fight Tony Bellew last Saturday night after his previous loss to him in March 2017. Booth thinks it was a major mistake on the Hayemaker’s part in taking the second fight with Bellew. In fact, Booth believes Haye (28-4, 26 KOs) should have never fought Bellew (30-2-1, 20 KOs) in the first place.
Haye was knocked out in the 5th round by Bellew in their rematch at the O2 Arena in London, England. The fight was shown on Sky Box Office PPV for the boxing fans interested in seeing Haye and Bellew fight each other a second time. Bellew, 34, had already stopped Haye in the 11th round in their first fight on March 4, 2017.
Haye was able to get a lot of boxing fans to believe in his chances of beating Bellew in the rematch by blaming his previous loss on a ruptured right Achilles he suffered in round 6 of the fight. Haye was literally hobbling on one leg after he suffered that injury. Afterwards, Haye had surgery and spent the last 12 month rehabbing to get ready for the rematch. However, it didn’t help Haye, because he was knocked down twice in round 3 after being hurt by a left hook from Bellew. Haye appeared to reinjure his surgically repaired Achilles in the 3rd and he was not the same the same fighter after that.
”In my opinion he should have never been in there anyway and he shouldn’t even have been in there last year, but he was,” Booth said to skysports.com. “It’s hard to see where he can go from here. “He made some big mistakes and let Tony trade with him. You don’t hook with a hooker, if you’re not a hooker, and David is a jab and straight right-hand puncher,” Booth said.
Haye picked the wrong guy for him to fight in Bellew. Haye would have been better off fighting a slower heavyweight, who didn’t have a good left hook. Booth is right about Haye making a critical mistake in letting Bellew get close enough to throw his left hooks. Haye tried to hook with him, and that was a mistake, Booth points out. Haye is at his best on the outside, throwing jabs and long right hands. What he did in both fights with Bellew was let him in close enough to throw his left hooks. The result saw Haye knocked down three times in the fight. Bellew had knocked out Illunga Makabu and BJ Flores with his left hook, and he was able to do the same thing to Haye. It’s clear that Haye did not learn from watching Bellew’s past fights, because if he did, he would have never allowed him in close enough to throw his left hook.
Haye, 37, hasn’t retired yet. He’s still holding on, talking about how things could possibly be different. Haye can probably still make good money by fighting lower level heavyweights to get the boxing fans believing in him again like he did after he stopped obscure fringe contenders Mark de Mori and Arnold Gjergjai in 2016 in his comeback fights after being out of the ring for 4 years between 2012 to 2016. Haye was out of action due to a bad right shoulder injury he suffered training in 2012. When Haye did comeback, he was smart to pick out de Mori and Gjergjai as his opponents. Haye knocked out de Mori in the 1st round and Gjergjai in the 2nd.
Haye can probably still win some fights against fringe contenders and domestic level fighters. Haye needs to get back into the ring soon against a non-puncher, and look to get some wins under his belt. It would be in Haye’s best interest not to fight a heavyweight with a good left hook. Until Haye learns how to keep those type of heavyweights on the outside, he should steer away from fighting them.