Haye fined for misconduct around Bellew fight

LONDON, (Reuters) Britain’s boxing body fined former world heavyweight champion David Haye 25,000 pounds ($31,995) yesterday for his conduct in the build-up to his defeat by underdog Tony Bellew in London last March.

“Mr. Haye admitted that his behaviour amounted to misconduct and brought boxing into disrepute,” the BritishBoxing Board of Control said in a statement.

The buildup to the fight had been marked by intense news conferences and heated trash-talk between the two British fighters. ($1 = 0.7814 pounds)

Kevin Molino struck in the 35th minute.

However, Bryan Ruiz netted on the stroke of half-time to dash T&T’s hopes and the second half proved one of frustration.

Head coach Dennis Lawrence said while he was disappointed not to get a positive result, he was pleased with the way T&T had pushed the Central American powerhouses.

“Costa Rica has always been one of the CONCACAF giants. I think we all understand they are a very good team and they have players of a top level,” the former national defender said afterwards.

“What I am most pleased about tonight is that we were able to come out tonight and match Costa Rica stride for stride. Unfortunately we did not get the result we wanted but I gave yeoman credit to my team for the effort that they put in.”

The defeat left T&T bottom of the six-nation stands on just three points from a single win – against Panama in Port of Spain last March.

They are only four points behind the Panamanians who currently occupy the last qualification spot but will need to quickly reverse results heading into the latter half of the competition.

Despite the bleak outlook, Lawrence said T&T would continue to press for their dream of qualification.

“We know points were important tonight. We are going to fight until the end, until it becomes mathematically impossible for us to qualify,” he stressed.

Having lost five days earlier to the United States in Denver, T&T suffered an early blow just moments after the opening whistle when Calvo escaped his marker in the box to head past Jan Michael Williams, following a right-sided corner.

Undaunted, T&T chased the equaliser with Joevin Jones coming close in the 28th minute with a fine free kick which forced an excellent save out of Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas and Hashim Arcia also testing the custodian minutes later.