Haye has too much muscle for Bellew
JEFF POWELL
ToNY BELLEW says he prefers smashing someone he detests rather than a fellow pro he likes. David Haye says he has never felt a greater urge to crush an opponent’s skull.
They are, of course, referring to each other. Charming. Mercifully, the trash-talking is over.
They can get on now with belting each other in the head to the vicarious delight of 17,000 fans in London’s o2 Arena and the television audience they have suckered into buying the broadcast with their lurid threats and four-letter insults.
This fight is not for any title, let alone a world championship. It is a cleverly manufactured fundraiser of which Haye will probably make short work once the millions in cash are at hand.
It has been cunningly marketed as the grudge match of a lifetime and is likely to provide knockabout entertainment while it lasts.
But there is no escaping that the noble art has been dragged through the gutter during the preamble.
No denying that the sport needs this like another hole in the head at a time when one boxer is lying in a fresh Scottish grave, another in a London hospital bed, while a recent visitor to the British ring is still in a coma in Germany.
Such behaviour makes it all the harder to defend this sport which, thankfully, is dignified by the courage of its practitioners once they step through the ropes.
Even when harsh words have been exchanged in advance, it is the habit of fighters to embrace as their unarmed combat comes to its bloody conclusion.
Will Haye and Bellew provide that saving grace? They are unsure.
‘A handshake?’ says Bellew rhetorically. ‘only if he apologises for the worst of the things he has said, some of which will be with me until the day I die.’
‘Respect?’ says Haye. ‘only if he earns it in the ring by making a real fight of it, which I doubt.’
Whether or not they continue to hold the grudge, they are unlikely to find the British Boxing Board of Control in forgiving mood when they convene next week to ponder fines, perhaps even suspensions.
Haye is likely to be taken most strongly to task. Not only for the more ghoulish of his threats but for his swearing at Bellew’s Merseyside followers.
However, among all his extreme statements, he spoke the truest word when he said: ‘This fight shouldn’t be taking place.’
His reason? Simply that he is a power-punching heavyweight and Bellew a cruiserweight who, at nearly 12lb the lighter, is thereby putting his life at risk. That also emphasises why — whether or not the public hype is for real — both are privately taking the fight itself most seriously.
Haye was merely playing mind games with Bellew by sending snapshots of himself sipping champagne and swanning about on luxury yachts in Miami.
Evidence that this is the hardest the former world heavyweight champion has trained on his comeback trail came when he stripped off his shirt.
He is ripped, lean and ready for quick-fire action.
Bellew has a less naturally athletic body but he is wearing the glow of a reigning champion primed to defend his reputation.
That is just as well, since he must expect to come under thunderous attack from one of the ring’s heaviest hitters.
This creates a dilemma for Bellew. He hopes that Haye, whose 36-year-old body is beginning to break down despite its vibrant appearance, will tire if he can take him to the later rounds.
But if he is too negative at the start he risks the fate of Audley Harrison, whose attempts at staying out of early trouble against Haye ended with the embarrassment of being knocked out in the third round having landed only one real punch.
It will not be easy for Bellew to find a balance between seeking survival and what he calls ‘seizing my glory’.
As for Haye, he says he wants Bellew to keep getting up when he knocks him down ‘so I can inflict maximum damage’.
Yet a swift stoppage would eliminate any risk of his surgicallyrepaired shoulder or a sore Achilles tendon flaring into a handicap. Not for nothing did he ask a rich friend to supply a private jet to fly him to Munich and back in the middle of fight week to visit his doctor.
When asked for a prediction, Haye says: ‘I will end this fight when I choose.’
Bellew is more sportingly temperate: ‘May the best man win. It’s not easy to catch me flush on the chin, but if he does then I am honest enough to say I could be knocked out. But if it’s me who wins I don’t want to hear any excuses.’
The bookies harbour no doubts. They quote Haye as the 1-7 favourite.
It is difficult to disagree.
Haye v Bellew will be televised live on Sky Sports Box Office tonight.