ALL OVER FOR HAYE
In a repeat of last year’s outcome, brutal Bellew batters his rival and it’s time to admit that it’s...
DAVID HAYE was blasted into a future almost certainly bereft of boxing as Tony Bellew rose to the sweetest and most savage glory of his fighting life.
Haye’s promise from Anthony Joshua of a bonanza night at Wembley Stadium was blown into the yonder in five stunning rounds.
The Hayemaker’s ring career was probably ended by a thunderstorm of massive punches from ‘Bomber’, who had described himself as ‘This little fat Scouser’.
Well, it was one huge-hearted Liverpudlian who left an indelible mark on British prize-fighting with this remarkable second crushing of Haye, once the unified cruiserweight champion who went on to wear the world heavyweight crown.
Bellew, having sent him reeling up and down like a yo-yo, generously reminded the roaring 20,000 in London’s 02 Arena that Haye had been a great champion ‘who is a better boxer than me’.
But he added: ‘Boxing is about styles and I’ve always known I had David’s number.’
The number that counted on Bellew’s victory night was three — how many times he sent the man who believed he had the biggest punch in the world crashing to earth.
Where Haye had limped like Quasimodo with his ruptured Achilles tendon 14 months ago, last night he was repeatedly sent taggering and stumbling by Bellew’s supposedly sub-heavyweight blows.
Haye, at 37, hedged on his vow to retire if he did not beat Bellew comprehensively. After being obliterated by his nemesis, he demurred: ‘We’ll see. I actually enjoyed the battle in there, even though I got beat by the better man on the night.’
Of where his pair of wins over Haye will take him later this year, Bellew said: ‘I’ve got no idea. But the people seem to like watching me fight.’
This audience certainly rose to his acclaim after jeering him into the ring. And how he deserved it.
After losing the first two rounds, Bomber exploded in the third. He surged into a shuddering exchange of blows and dropped Haye twice, each time claiming the brainscrambling rights which were supposed to be the Hayemaker’s trademark.
Haye came limping out for the fourth, clearly in distress. Perhaps there was another ankle injury, albeit not as chronic as in the first fight. Somehow he survived a fearsome battering. But the fifth was his apocalypse. This time he stumbled into a left hook from hell. Down he went again. He was out on the feet to which he somehow clambered. Referee Howard Foster warily allowed him to continue but as Bellew went for the kill with a salvo of blows he saved Haye from himself as well as a slaughter.
Bellew had predicted he would shock the world, Only those closest to him truly he believed he would do it twice. Whatever Bomber wants to do next, he has earned that right.
For Haye, some serious thinking lies ahead.