Despite David Haye saying earlier on Tuesday that the deal was done for him to face former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew in a rematch, promoter Eddie Hearn says the deal for the fight still isn’t done yet. Hearn hopes to have the fighters sign a contract by next week so he can make an announcement.
Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) beat Haye by an 11th round knockout on March 4 in London, England. Haye suffered a bad Achilles tendon tear in round 6, and he was too injured to put up much of a fight. The match should have been stopped due to the injury. It’s hard not to imagine a ringside doctor not stopping the contest if it had taken place in the U.S.
Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) was limping all around the ring with the injury, and he couldn’t put his weight on the effected leg. The end of the fight came in round 11 when Haye slipped out of the ring while taking punishment against the ropes. Haye’s trainer threw in the towel once he fell out of the ring.
“It’s taken a long time to get this rematch even discussed and now there is a real possibility it could be next,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “Nothing is signed yet but I’m catching up with Tony later this week and you can cross your fingers for an announcement in the next week or so.”
There’s no word when the Haye-Bellew rematch will take place and what location. It’s likely the fight will be staged in London once again, and shown on Sky Box Office PPV.
Haye could make more money fighting IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua if he could get a fight against him. The loss that Haye suffered last March and the Achilles injury hurt his chances of getting a fight against Joshua. For Haye to get a fight against Joshua, he’ll need to defeat Bellew and look good in doing so. He can’t deal with another injury setback like the one he suffered in that fight, and in training for his cancelled fight against Tyson Fury in the past.
”It’s taken months of negotiating but teams have finally agreed ALL terms for #HayeBellew2 Will Bellew put pen to paper✍ ?!#RevengeOrRepeat,” said Haye on his Twitter.
Haye-Bellew isn’t a big deal in the States, but in the UK, they love this fight for some reason. It’s nice that Haye is getting a chance to redeem himself against Bellew, but there are bigger fights out there for Haye than beating a former paper champion in Bellew. Again, this is a big deal for the UK, so you can understand why Haye would want to fight Bellew again. There’s good money to be made in a rematch.
The British boxing don’t see Bellew as a former belt holder. They think he’s really great. Unfortunately, we never saw Bellew truly tested at cruiserweight. He never fought the good fighters in the division like Oleksandr Usyk, Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev, Denis Lebedev, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Dmitry Kudrashaov or Yunier Dorticos. Those are some very good fighters for Bellew not to have faced. It’s hard to understand why he never fought them unless he was avoiding them, which I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what he’s been doing.