‘I respect him as a fighter but he is a bad human being’
David Haye’s remarks ahead of Saturday’s fight have left Tony Bellew disgusted, he tells Gareth A Davies
T here will be no more personal or more vicious fight in Europe this year than the one between Tony Bellew and David Haye when the pair go toe to toe in London on Saturday night.
The Liverpudlian Bellew, responding to Haye’s hugely controversial comments in The
Sunday Telegraph, hit back at what he called Haye’s “disgusting attitude”, labelling his rival “a scumbag”, “a gobs---e” and “a bad human being”.
Haye’s comments that he intends to “hospitalise” his foe are now the subject of an investigation by the British Boxing Board for which the former world champion could yet be sanctioned ahead of one of the biggest grudge fights in British boxing history. Bellew, speaking exclusively to
The Daily Telegraph yesterday, revealed that his family had left the country yesterday, and lifted the lid on the origins of their hatefuelled feud, which intensified after Haye hit him at a news conference.
Bellew said his growing dislike for Haye is not as a fighter, but as a person. “He’s a scumbag. He’s not a nice human being. This is a man who chooses to spend his Christmas and downtime partying with strangers in Miami rather than be at home with his children. That’s the mark of the man I’m dealing with,” he said.
Bellew explained that it had become more than just a fight. “As a person he is a piece of s--- in my opinion. He said some distasteful and disgusting things. The things he said to Audley Harrison all those years ago [when Haye said their fight would be as “one-sided as a gang rape”]. What kind of s---bag would say stuff like that?
“He called me ‘a retard’ during filming of The Gloves Are Off. I said: ‘David, when all this is done, I have no care for being known or wanting to be famous. You can’t let it go. I don’t care much for you. This is just another fight and you’re just another fighter. When this is all said and done, I’m just going to go home to my three beautiful kids and my lovely missus’. “His response was, ‘You’re not, you’re going to hospital’. He said he was going to put me on a stretcher. It was the most distasteful and disgusting thing a fighter has ever said to me. I said: ‘You’d better do it now then – use a chair or something – because you can’t do that. You’ve never done it to anyone in your career’. “He said: ‘I sent Mark de Mori to hospital.’ He was bragging about sending people to hospital.” Bellew believes Haye’s threats to cause “serious damage” to his opponents is an appalling message in the wake of the horrific injuries suffered by a number of fighters in recent months, including the death of Mike Towell. The 34-yearold also revealed that he clashed with Haye when they were doing media work during Callum Smith’s victory over Luke Blackledge, which left the latter unconscious. Bellew believes Haye’s reaction to the incident is typical of his character. He said: “While he was unconscious on the floor, I caught David’s eye and his words were, ‘I’m going to do
that to you’. This is the kind of scumbag I’m dealing with. I have no intentions to hurt David Haye beyond the 10 seconds it takes for the referee to count to 10. My sport has been through enough – from Mike Towell to Nick Blackwell to Eduard Gutknecht.
“It’s a horrible, brutal business and the last thing we need is a fighter of his calibre, and a wellknown celebrity fighter, endorsing the fact he wants to send people to hospital. It’s disgusting.”
It is for this reason that Bellew asked his family to leave the country for fight week.
“I’m sending them away this week,” he explained. “They’re going away for a week to a place I would have only dreamed of going. I’m not going to tell people where they are but they will be in a beautiful country I could only dream of going to.”
It all adds up to one of the most bitter personal duels in recent memory and Bellew has revealed that their previously respectful rivalry changed forever when Haye punched him at a news conference.
“I had no real beef with him at the start, in all honesty. We sparred as amateurs, I’ve always believed I could beat him. Then I thought when he made his comeback it would be a big fight. It only turned nasty, I’ll be honest, after the press conference, when he punched me on the side of the head.
“I don’t like the person he is. The stories aren’t good. I’ve seen him reject children who wanted pictures. I’ve seen him say no because he had a bandage on his hand. I’ve heard the stories of him telling kids to do 20 press-ups, and the kid who couldn’t do 20 pressups wasn’t allowed a picture with him.
“I’ve heard the story of a gentleman asking for a picture and Haye saying he’d only do it if his wife gave him a kiss on the lips. This is the kind of scumbag he is.”
Bellew is no stranger to trashtalking but the depth of his disgust for Haye is startling.
“My feeling is 100 per cent genuine,” he adds. “I think he’s an utter gobs---e of a man. I still respect him as a fighter, but he’s a gobs---e of a man and a bad human being. It’s nice to be important sometimes, but it’s more important to be nice all the time. That’s one thing this man isn’t.
“Do you know why he didn’t retire at 30? Because he can’t stay out of the limelight and he’s p----his money up the wall. He can’t give it up. He loves the cameras, the celebrity lifestyle. This guy would turn up to the opening of an envelope if there were cameras there. When I’m done with boxing people won’t see me any more. They will always see this clown.”
It promises to be some week, and the pair will go face to face at a press conference in Liverpool today with real dislike, distrust and ill-feeling between them.
‘He was bragging about sending people to hospital. This is the kind of scumbag I am dealing with’