GUEST COLUMN
Adam Booth on Bellew vs Haye II
SO, they’re doing it again: Tony Bellew vs David Haye, part two. On paper, you always have to pick Haye as the favourite because the first fight was a freak show. But I think it will be a much better fight than the first one and I give Bellew a better shot than I did last March.
In fact, I think they will both be better than they were for the first fight. I think Haye is going to be healthier, lighter, quicker and more effective. Physically, he looks like he is going back to what he was before. He’s a cruiserweight, not a heavyweight. It’s all about speed and movement and being healthy.
What the hell he was doing in the lead up to the Bellew fight and in the two previous fights, I have no idea. It was as if he thought, ‘Right, the bigger I am, the harder I’ll hit and the better shot I’ll be able to take.’ It almost looked like he ate himself into athletic disability.
I think he will now be shedding that athletic disability and I think the Cuban coach [Ismael Salas] is good for that because it’s all happy, movey, light stuff.
But what’s also worth considering is the fact he’s had two serious injuries: right Achilles and left bicep. He probably hasn’t taxed himself too much in sparring. He can’t afford to.
Still, even if he’s fat and injured, we know he’s heavy-handed. And Bellew took his shots. He didn’t just take them, either. He looked comfortable.
How emotionally composed was Bellew in that first fight? He wasn’t to know Haye’s Achilles was going to snap, but he stayed composed through all that, and through getting hit on the chin a couple of times. He knows what he’s doing. Even if David is healthier and better, Bellew, with the confidence he should have got from the first fight, is going to be in the fight and feeling good about himself.
What did surprise me, though, was how ineffective Tony’s power seemed to be on a sitting target. It was almost like he had nothing in his punches. The question is, how much of this was to do with Tony’s punch-power and how much of it was it to do with the fact David was a lot bigger and expecting the shots? He was built to soak it up a bit and he was also prepared and saw the punches coming because he couldn’t move and wasn’t trying to throw too many of his own. When you know you can’t freely punch back, you change your mindset and start to roll and ride punches and brace yourself.
Maybe David went all those rounds because he wasn’t punching and there was no real output. He fought like a journeyman. He had no choice but to fight like a journeyman.
But if you can only walk, you can’t knacker yourself in a sprint. It was like that. He couldn’t really do anything. He couldn’t fight like he normally does and the way he normally fights can sometimes cause him to tire, get sloppy and fade. He was almost spared the possibility of that happening because of the injury.
So, basically, he could be fitter for the rematch, and not get injured, but then tire after a few rounds because he’s having to fight like a winner who is looking for something, rather than a journeyman who is having to protect himself and get through rounds. I don’t know if this will happen. It might. It might not. Frankly, after their first fight, it’s fair to say I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen on Saturday night.
ON PAPER, YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO PICK HAYE AS THE WINNER BECAUSE THE FIRST FIGHT WAS A FREAK SHOW