David Haye and Tony Bellew had an uneventful meeting for their The Gloves Are Off taping on Friday without the two of them going at it. Haye said they needed to have a 10 minute cooling off period when things started to get heated at one point.
Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) says he can’t wait to get the 33-year-old Bellew into the ring on March 4 so he can belt him around the ring and knock him out quickly. Haye says he’s hoping Bellew can bring some talent to the ring, because he would like to see the fight make it to the 5th or 6th rounds for the boxing fans. But, Haye doesn’t see the talented needed for Bellew to do much in this fight other than get knocked out quickly in front of the fans at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Haye says that Bellew is just so basic with his fighting style. Haye is used to fighting guys a lot bigger than him in the heavyweight division, and he fee;s it’s going to be a treat for him to fight a guy the same size as him in the 6’2”, 225lb Bellew.
“I am looking at doing a real serious number on this guy. He has got such a big mouth and he is so annoying that I can’t wait to get rid of him,” said Haye to skysports.com. “If you look at the other guys he has fought, he always tries to get in their face and tries to intimidate people. I don’t like bullies so, as soon as he gets in my face, I react, I retaliate.”
Haye is right about Bellew always trying to intimidate his opponents before they get inside the ring. That’s a psychological trick that fighters often use when they doubt their own skills to do the job. The guys that know they’re going to win, they don’t bother using those shortcuts to try and gain an edge over their opponents, because they know they can in.
Bellew obviously needs every trick in the book for him to win. What’s sad is Bellew has only fought one good opponent during his entire career in Adonis Stevenson. The rest of the guys that Bellew has fought have been mediocre fighters. Bellew NEVER fought Sergey Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev, Andre Ward, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Murat Gassiev, Denis Lebedev, Marco Huck, Krzystof Glowacki, Oleksandr Usyk or Beibut Shumenov. You tell me why Bellew never fought any of those talented fighters. Instead of fighting those guys, Bellew has fought these guys: BJ Flores, Ilunga Makabu, and Nathan Cleverly. Those are the best guys that Bellew has beaten. I’m sorry, but those guys don’t compare with the talents that he’s not fought.
Bellew is a paper champion in my view, and he took off from the cruiserweight division without facing Mairiis Briedis or Marco Huck. He should have fought the No.1 guy before agreeing to fight Haye on March 4. Supposedly, Bellew is going to come back down to cruiserweight to defend his title against the winner of the April 1 fight between Huck and Briedis. I don’t believe it through.
I see Bellew staying at heavyweight after he loses to Haye so that he can get a title shot against IBF champion Anthony Joshua. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bellew gets a title shot against Joshua before Haye even if he loses to him by a 1st round knockout on March 4. I still see Bellew getting a crack and Joshua before Haye. Why, because Bellew is with the same promoter as Joshua in Eddie Hearn.
“I just hope there is a nice distance between us before the first bell,” said Haye about Bellew. “For the weigh-in and the next press conference, we need to make sure there is plenty of distance. I could feel he wanted to go for me and, if he does, I can’t guarantee I am not going to smash him up before the first bell on March 4.”
It’s up to Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn if he wants to keep him and Haye apart before the fight. If Hearn wants to make sure the two fighters are kept apart, then he’ll forget about there being a face off in any of the remaining press conferences and at the weigh-in. It should be fairly easy to keep them apart. I don’t think it will change the outcome of the PPV sales for the fight on Sky Box Office.
Boxing fans will purchase the fight whether they have face offs or not. The fans don’t need drama between the two fighters for it to squeeze out a few more PPV buys. The boxing fans will purchase the fight anyway, because some of them actually believe that Bellew has a chance to win. I don’t. But then again, I’ve seen Bellew fight many times, and I know how average he is. I also know that Bellew hasn’t faced any good fighters since his loss to Adonis Stevenson in 2013. He’s been facing weaker opposition instead of the really good fighters in the cruiserweight division.
I wish Bellew would make it an interesting fight by him landing something big that buzzes Haye in the 1st round, because the fight is such a sad, predicted mismatch.
Bellew’s intimidation tactics won’t work against Haye. Even if they did, Bellew would need the actual talent to win the fight. Fighters that are afraid are still very dangerous when backed into the corner. If Bellew did succeed in scaring Haye, he would still need to deal with getting hit really hard by shots that he’s never experienced before. Stevenson knocked Bellew out easily. Makabu probably would have too if he didn’t fight in such a conservative manner. If Makabu had let his hands go against Bellew, I think he would have knocked him out easily. Makabu had the talent and the power, but the wrong game plan.
Haye said this to IFL TV about what he’ going to do to Bellew on March 4:
“You think I’m intimidated,” said Haye. “You got to be joking. This guy is going to lose and lose horribly, I’m going to make sure of that. I just know I’m going out there and beating the hell out fo Tony Bellew for as long as he can take it, and that’s not going to be very long. He’s going to get knocked out spectacularly or worse. He’s getting carried out of the ring on a stretcher.”