By Charles Brun: David Haye was furious last Saturday night after watching former MMA champion Vitor Belfort celebrating after annihilating 58-year-old Evander Holyfield in a first round knockout in Hollywood, Florida.
Although Haye is made at Belfort, he isn’t saying anything about wanting to fight him. Now, why is that? I think we know the answer to that. Belfort is just too dangerous for Haye.
Belfort was on a seek & destroy mission against Holyfield, and he wasn’t going to take it easy on the grizzled former two-division world champion.
Why didn’t Haye call out Belfort?
The way Haye looked in laboring to an unimpressive eight round decision over Joe Fournier last Saturday, Belfort would have likely would have knocked him out just as easily as he did Holyfield. Haye looked really bad, and there’s no comparison whatsoever between him and Belfort.
Haye looked like a washed-up fighter. In contrast, Belfort showed the kind of speed and power that would make him a threat to any of the top cruiserweights in the division, including WBO champion Lawrence Okolie.
Belfort has the speed and power that would make him a threat to any of the best cruiserweights and some of the smaller heavyweights like Michael Hunter and Oleksandr Usyk.
With the $30 million that Triller CEO Ryan Kavanaugh was talking about being available for Jake Paul to scoop up if he accepts a fight with Vitor Belfort, it’s surprising that Haye wasn’t throwing his hat in the ring by calling out the former MMA star.
Even if Haye got half that amount, that’s a heck of a lot more than what he’d get fighting WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who he was practically begging to fight next when being interviewed at the post-fight press conference last Saturday.
Haye was under the impression that with the Holyfield-Belfort fight being an eight round exhibition, the much younger, stronger, and faster 44-year-old Belfort would take it easy on Holyfield.
That wasn’t the case, unfortunately, as he was playing for keeps, showing no mercy as he jumped on the old lion Holyfield, knocking him down once with a left uppercut and then taking him out with a blizzard of hurtful looking power punches to the head.
Moments after the fight, Holyfield looked shocked, trying to understand what had just happened to him.
What was really sad was listening to Holyfield ramble on during a post-fight interview, complaining that the referee had stopped the fight too soon.
If anything, the referee should’ve stopped the slaughter after the knockdown because it was clear from watching that Holyfield didn’t belong inside the same ring as the lethal-punching Belfort.
Haye up in arms about Belfort celebrating
“It was horrible to see my hero getting starched in one round. I really didn’t like seeing that, but that’s boxing,” said Haye to iFL TV on Vitor Belfort, knocking out Evander Holyfield.
“I thought that fight was an exhibition. It was Vitor Belfort, who was very powerful early. Everyone knows Holyfield doesn’t do well against southpaws.
“He just blasted him out. I was like, ‘What are you doing? He’s 58.‘ And he was celebrating like he’s done something impressive. Different people have different values of respect.
“What’s impressive about knocking out a 58-year-old? No matter how good Holyfield looked on the scales, he’s 58. With the reflexes and timing, he hasn’t been hit in over a decade,” said Haye.
What did Haye expect Belfort to do against Holyfield? I mean, if Belfort had taken it easy on Holyfield in a fake-looking fight, he would have hurt his chances to make money on pay-per-view down the road.
Belfort literally had no choice but to play for keeps and go all out against Holyfield if he wanted to get boxing and MMA fans excited about purchasing his fights on PPV in the future.
With the way that Belfort looked against Holyfield, there are many boxing fans who know believe Oscar De La Hoya’s decision to back out of the fight with Vitor was based on fear & self-preservation rather than him having COVID-19.
The way that Belfort looked, the 48-year-old De La Hoya would have stood no chance against him.
