BELLEW INSPIRED BY STARS OF PAST
TONY BELLEW has been getting psyched up for David Haye by watching footage of Nigel Benn, Bernard Hopkins and Mike Tyson in their heydays.
American legend Hopkins is one of the Liverpool boxer’s heroes and he fought a record 20 world middleweight title defences from 1995 to 2005.
Bellew has been studying old tapes and thinks he will finish Haye’s career at the O2 Arena after stopping him in the 11th round 13 months ago.
The Scouser, 35, said: “Other fighters would rather watch Mayweather with his slipping of the shoulder and stuff like that.
“I’d rather sit and watch fighters like Bernard Hopkins, how he figures out and deals with Winky Wright, how he outboxed Felix Trinidad in the middleweight series final.
“I always watch the old fights. I just idolise Nigel Benn, the things he said, how ferocious and intimidating he was – I just loved watching him.
“As I do the old Mike Tyson. The Tyson who walked to the ring with a white towel on and looked ferocious. He frightened me just watching him.
“I love looking back at the older fights, they don’t make them like they used to.”
NICK PARKINSON
The Hayemaker has also been doing catching exercises and punching a tennis ball on a string tied to his cap for better hand-eye co-ordination.
Haye, 37, hopes it will help him get revenge over English rival Bellew in their non-title fight at London’s O2 Arena after suffering an 11th-round defeat there 13 months ago.
Defeat prompted Haye to change trainers to Cuban Ismael Salas and the Londoner is promising an improvement. He said: “I’ve been doing lots of ball drills, juggling and cone drills where I’m touching cones. One exercise is a little trampoline where you throw tennis balls at it and they ping off in different directions so you have to grab it.
“I was terrible when I first did it and I couldn’t believe how uncoordinated I was, but by doing it every day it has just sharpened it up.
“There’s another thing where you have a little hat and a ball with string on it and I couldn’t do it at first.
“I can only juggle three balls so there’s no life in the circus after boxing. It was difficult to start with but if you practise every day you end up getting better.
“The hand-eye co-ordination was missing in the first fight with Bellew. It’s a timing thing you get from sparring as well.
“The type of sparring I have done this time is very different from the first Bellew fight. I wasn’t fight-ready last time. I was getting my timing back during the fight as it went on but it should have been there from the first round.”
The ex-WBA world heavyweight champion insists he has no injury worries after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon in the sixth round against the Merseysider.
He said: “Everything is fine. It’s eerily nice. It’s going, not too well, but very well and I just need to keep it this way.
“It’s like a car having a major service – new tyres, new clutch, oil change, it’s had everything revamped. It’s started up, ticks over well, you’ve taken it round the block but you haven’t put it on the track yet.
“It’s looking good in practise and you think it should do well, it should get the chequered flag and it should be all right.”
Haye hopes victory will catapult him back into world title contention. British rival Anthony Joshua, who holds three of the world heavyweight titles, is in talks to fight American Deontay Wilder, who holds the other belt, later in the year.
Haye lost on points to Wladimir Klitschko in a unification fight seven years ago and wants another shot at the best and he added: “You get remembered for your last appearance a lot of the time and I want that to be a glorious night.”