OVER AND OUT
David Haye’s career is left in ruins after being blitzed by Tony Bellew in rematch
TRUTHS in boxing, eventually, become evident. Tony Bellew is not as ordinary as he looks. The magnificent champion David Haye once was is no more. Time, for everyone, runs out.
Doubts hovered around them both, whether Haye could recover from injury and recapture some of the form of old, whether Bellew had enough to overcome whatever shades of David Haye remained. Tony came to the ring surrounded by his own demons. In his quiet moments before the fight he’d thought of the brother-in-law he’d lost. He had Ashley Roberts’ name printed on his shorts and held a ringside seat empty in his memory. When the first bell chimed, even with the tumult of the crowd all around him, he could take a peculiar kind of solace. The time for those thoughts was gone. It was time to do. To fight.
Bellew sidled round to his left, looking to jab. All he had to concentrate on now was David Haye. The Londoner was older now, but his punches were still hard. Haye chopped a right hand down but declined to charge in. In their first fight last year Haye had rushed his work from the outset, his accuracy and rhythm hopelessly off. More than a year, and another couple of injuries later, he wasn’t going to make those same mistakes. Unhurried Haye landed his jab flush. Bellew slashed a left hook across and, after the bell to end the first round, David landed a cheeky jab to Tony’s supposedly soft body.
‘MY LIFE IS A MESS BUT IT ALL MAKES SENSE WHEN I GET IN A BOXING RING’
Haye’s confidence only grew in the second round. His right hand carved down and he skipped back from a Bellew lunge. The right streaked through again and he brought up solid lefts to wobble Bellew. His cross struck the body and the Liverpudlian, nearing the ropes, held his arms out wide on either side to show he was unhurt and unfazed. David came on still, another forceful cross snagging Bellew.
They posed and preened. Haye smiled at his progress, seemingly satisfied with how the fight would develop. He landed a jab, Bellew smoothed his hair with his own gloves. But their confidence games were redundant. A tremendous right cross from the Liverpudlian shattered any illusions. The shock of the impact was stunning. Haye’s legs fell away from beneath him as he crashed to the canvas. The Londoner clawed his way upright in a fog of pain. Bellew bounded after him, clattering David across the ring, into the ropes, a right hook smacking him down to the canvas again.
He needed the ropes to haul himself bodily upwards. Referee Howard Foster was taking up the count but it was the bell to end the third round that saved Haye here. The expression on David’s face was unmistakeable. Panic was etched across his features. He knew, the whole O2 arena knew, he was deep in trouble.
Bellew, as he himself has emphasised, may not be a “power athlete” but he is a fighting man through and through. They do not repeat mistakes. He lost his composure when Haye was hurt in their first fight. In the second act he did not do so again. In the fourth round Bellew shepherded his victim across the canvas. He understood he could move Haye round the ring and gradually break him apart.
➤ Before the fight Haye had insisted new trainer Ismael Salas had “rewired his legs”. Be that as it may, now Bellew had disconnected them. Haye moved his feet awkwardly beneath him, to such a degree that it looked like he could be injured again. He was certainly stunned, fighting Bellew and fighting to master his own balance.
Tony lashed him with straight onetwo after straight one-two. These shots smashed into him. Haye teetered away. As he retreated to the ropes, he uncorked a right hand over the top. He repeated the gambit, and while he caught Bellew once for the most part Tony ducked clear.
The end was inevitable. It came in the fifth round. Haye swung with Bellew trying to bring his left over. It was a terminal error. Tony has deployed this left hook before, throwing it with an opponent who tried the same shot. Bellew’s was more powerful, more accurate and better timed. The impact of the blow was brutal. Haye’s legs were spat out from beneath him, pitching him face first sprawled on the canvas.
Rising was an act of defiance but he could not fend off Bellew. The punches incoming carried him across the ring, into the ropes. The final flurry was not clean, not as devastating as what had come before. But Haye’s defence was leaking horribly and referee Howard Foster had little choice but to end it at 2-14.
The Londoner finished speaking respectfully of Bellew. Haye couldn’t quite bring himself to announce his retirement in the ring but that is the question he must answer now. He might convince himself to carry on still, but he won’t be able persuade anyone else that he can continue at the top level in this sport.
As the crowd applauded him, Bellew’s eyes filled with tears. It was, once again, life outside the ropes that occupied his mind now. “I dedicate this fight to Ash, I know he’s watching me,” Tony said. “My life’s a mess but it all makes sense when I get in the boxing ring. I like fighting. In all honesty, coming in here, I was hoping for a really hard fight, a war. And I was hoping he was going to beat the fight out of me. But, you know, all he’s done, he’s just made the fire even worse. He’s just added to the flames and I just want to punch everything and fight the world. I really do.”
Paul Butler had already lost his chance to regain the IBF bantamweight title. The day before he failed to make weight by three pounds and walked from the scales sipping a drink, in no hurry to try again. It was unfair to place Puerto Rico’s Emmanuel Rodriguez in that position, he wanted his world title fight but not at a weight disadvantage. Admittedly Butler could hardly be forced to drain and deplete himself going in with such a dangerous puncher. It was Rodriguez’s power that stamped his authority on their contest from the first round. A solid left hook to the chin dropped Butler heavily early on. A right to the body sent the Ellesmere Port boxer skittering back and off his feet again. Butler was in a deep hole. He did well to recover but Rodriguez never relinquished control of the fight. He tracked forward, so comfortable he often lowered his hands. He led with his right to burst forward with combinations and won a clear unanimous decision, 118-108 for Carlos Colon and 120-106 for Patrick Morley and Howard Foster. Bob Williams refereed. Puerto Rico has a new star on its hands in Rodriguez.
Islington’s John Ryder catapulted himself into world level at supermiddleweight with a spectacular victory over Jamie Cox. The Swindon man
bored into his fellow southpaw, hacking left hooks over. But John tagged him with his lead right, catching him with jabs. In the second round he came off the ropes to sweep in his right hook. It caught high Cox on the head. Jamie’s legs loosened and he tumbled forward. Disorientated he did not beat referee Ian John Lewis’ count 50 seconds into the second round.
Belfast’s James Tennyson won the European and Commonwealth superfeatherweight titles in a thrilling clash with
Martin J. Ward. The Brentwood boxer landed smart combinations. He drilled a left hook into Tennyson’s body in the second round, blasting the wind out of his lungs and dropping him to his knees. But Tennyson rallied. He came back at Ward, pushing himself forward as he put his size and strength to work. Martin was drawn in to standing and trading with his challenger. In the fifth round a right hand clattered into Ward, hurting him and dropping him. Another massive right stunned Martin. He reached out, trying to hold Tennyson even as he fell. He had to be stopped by referee Victor Loughlin at 2-24 of the fifth.
Joe Joyce is going places quickly. In just his fourth professional bout, he crushed Commonwealth champion
Lenroy Thomas inside two rounds. The Jamaican flicked in a southpaw cross. But he needed to hit harder to repel the Londoner. Joe bore down on him, his clubbing punches weakening Lenroy’s resistance. Before the first round was out Joyce heaved a left uppercut into Thomas’ body to deposit him on the canvas.
He continued to shake up Thomas in the second, battering him down to the canvas, the weight of those salvoes too much for Lenroy. He dashed a left hook across his jaw and didn’t bother to follow up. He knew Thomas was finished. The Jamaican tottered on his feet as Joe turned and walked away to leave his victim crumpled behind him. Finish came at 2-36, Terry O’connor refereed.
After a close run defeat to Jorge Linares, Luke Campbell halted Troy
James in a scheduled six rounder. The Hull southpaw was too quick, too sharp, too talented for the Coventry man. His left scooped up into the body with whipping force. Campbell varied the attacks, straight shots catching his head from a distance. James had an 11lbs weight advantage, which helped him absorb the blows but by 2-18 of the fifth he could take no more. Referee was Jeff Hines.
Joshua Buatsi worked through the first four rounds with Frenchman
Stephane Cuevas methodically. But in the fifth he scored a highlight reel finish. He touched his own boot and managed to send a one-two combination rocketing in. He chased Cuevas down with venom, drilling him with a heavy cross as he ploughed forward. Referee Jeff Hines grabbed Croydon’s Buatsi round the arms, to save Cuevas at 0-50.
Welsh southpaw Kodie Davies knocked out Poland’s Przemyslaw
Gorgon with a savage left hook to the body at the end of the first round. Chatteris’ Jordan Gill steadily outpointed Dubliner Carl Mcdonald 60-54 after six rounds. Alabama’s Money Powell ground out a stoppage over Hungarian
Mark Krammerstodter at 0-49 of the fourth round. Mark Bates refereed.
THE VERDICT A brutal night ended David Haye’s career at the top level.