Hark at you! The injury ended it as a contest, no doubt about it.
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Well that was interesting.got to say the injury did end it as a proper contest.I thought haye was cruising until that point but fair play to bellew up till then he took some big shots and didn't look totally out of place.bellew was blowing out his arse the last couple of rounds.
And all credit to haye for showing great courage would have been fair enough to retire in his corner but he kept going and fair play for his interview after aswell.
No one is saying that. Bellew boxed better for the first few rounds. He took a few big hits from Haye but Haye was desperate to land a big punch. Once the injury hit in the 5th bellew had to readjust and make sure he just won the fight. Yes bellew HAD to win after that, but there was still a chance Haye could have landed 1 big punch so bellew had to judge that. I can't stand Haye but appreciate he done well to stay in the fight. I doubt you'll do the same about Bellew tho.
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Jesus, they're talking about Bellew v Parker or Wilder now. The scary thing is Hearn has a track record of tying down these big fights and both will fancy destroying Bellew with ease.
I reckon hearn could sell sand to the Arabs.
Deontay wilder is a very wild fighter not got great technique but I'm sure it's all talk bellew stock willor never have been higher so I reckon they will explore all avenues until they sell us the rematch. To be fair there are no real big money fights at cruiserweight for him so he's as well trying his luck at heavyweight.
Made myself some cash tonight. Year of the under-dog continues!!!! Well Done Bellew.
Haye was clearly injured before he stepped in the ring tonight, you don't fly to Germany to see a world renowned knee and ankle specialist a few days before your fight if you haven't snapped something. TBF to Bellew though he took some heavy shots in those first few rounds and stood up to them so credit where it's due. Think if you're fighting a guy with one operating leg then you need to do it in less than 5 rounds though, so that last 5 rounds is either the best 5 rounds or the worst 5 rounds I've ever seen, I still can't really decide which :greengrin
Bellew has now called out Wilder, I mean seriously, WTF?!!
For my untrained eye...
Haye was strutting about like a dick at the start.
Bellew was in it for a bit but don't think he could really hurt Haye with a single punch, would take 4 or 5 clean shots to do that.
Haye was trying to land big shots that Bellew was doing well to avoid.
Haye hurt himself but was that more down to his wild nature, swinging and Bellew making him miss.
Haye is old.
Bellew had scored a knock down and ahead on the cards.
Bellew didn't go into finish him off because 1, he didn't quite have the power to annihilate him and 2, just had to score points because Haye couldn't chase him.
Haye probably could have chinned him in one go, so why risk that. Bellew just had to "stick and move"! Even Tony Evers would have offered up that advice.
Haye is still a dick. Glad he lost.
Bellew is no heavyweight.
I love a conspiracy so I reckon tonight has messed everything up. Haye was probably supposed to win and get a few good rounds under his belt so he could fight Joshua. Hearns & Bellew make loads of money with no risk.
What next? Haye goes down to Cruiserweight for a rematch or retires.
Joshua would destroy Haye.
Haye is still a dick
Haye injured in a big fight? Heard that before after a loss.
Pretty poor fight not a lot happening for the first half then Haye got injured. Bellew knocked him down and landed a few good shots in 7,8,9 then tired.
Not mad keen on a rematch and don't see either of them as having a future at Heavyweight. Haye because I think he will retire and Bellew because I just don't think he's good enough.
Haye needed to win to set up the super fight for EH. Bellew can't face Joshua and was clearly happy with the purse tonight. Doubt either will be back in the ring again.
Backed Bellew at 6/1 as soon as that injury was rumoured during the week lovely wee lift
With the stories of Haye undergoing surgery on his ankle through the night emerging, here are my thoughts........
When the rumours of Haye flying to Germany to see his surgeon came out earlier in the week, everyone put it down to gamesmanship & him trying to unsettle Bellew........now looks like this was genuine. With the years of ridicule he's received since blaming his wee toe for the poor performance against Klitschko, he simply couldn't withdraw from the fight in fight week. He would've been slaughtered and his career would've been over.
In his final interview before the fight at the weigh-in, Bellew very specifically predicted that Haye would quit during the fight and "disgrace himself". Thanks to that, there was no way Haye could quit after the (very real) injury. Again, he would've been slaughtered and his career would've been over.
On to the actual fight.....after the first round, Bellew never landed a punch worth talking about until the injury. It was clearly his game plan to get through the first half of the fight and then go for it in the later rounds. Maybe even just to hear the final bell would've been enough for him. Haye was looking for the fight ending punch from the first bell, he wasn't using the jab nearly enough until around round 4. Then the injury. For anyone to claim that was fake is laughable. You can could clearly see it happen, the commentators called it at the time. Why would a proud fighter choose to stagger around the ring looking like me on a night out after several pints and sambuccas? From that moment on, Haye couldn't get any power into his punches. He couldn't plant his feet. Any other fighter would've quit but for reasons stated earlier, he simply couldn't. He did ridiculously well to get through to round 11 and still had be pulled out by his corner (who should've done it much earlier). To beat that count was incredible.
Great to see the mutual respect after the finish despite the outrageous trash talk of the previous months and I was glad that Haye didn't once mention the injury in the interview despite it being the obvious reason for his loss. He showed zero class pre-fight but almost made up for it after the fight. I say almost because his virtual begging for a re-match was very unedifying.
Every fight expert, every ex boxer and all the Sky & BBC commentators have waxed lyrical about Haye's warrior like heart and the fact the he could've but didn't quit. He had no choice in my opinion but full marks to both fighters in the end.
Rematch? No thanks.
Don't get people having a go at Bellew here. All week he's supposedly going to walking into a fight that'll end with him going to hospital after 2/3 rounds max, a fully fit Haye didn't look like doing that at all. When Haye got the injury, Bellew simply finished the job, so hats off to the guy.
Two dreams Bellew has achieved in a year and absolutely no one can take that away from him, chuffed for him.
Exactly this.
I don't think I heard Bellew say he was going knock Haye out, in the lead up to the fight. Maybe he did, but I didn't hear it. Now, you have folk berating him for not knocking out Haye after he got injured. Bellew did what he needed to. Before he started limping about, Haye was throwing huge punches, and missing with almost all of them.
Haye banged on about hurting Bellew, Haye was convinced he'd knock him out. Even before his injury, he wasn't doing that.
Bellew said he'd win, never really stated how but he did say he hoped both fighters would be unharmed at the end. He then said after the weigh in that Haye would "gas it", "quit" and "disgrace himself". He did win and Haye did gas it (they both did to be fair) but Haye didn't quit or disgrace himself. Both fighters came out with credit without it being a great example of the sweet science.
Boxing Worldwide just tweeted "David Haye has undergone major surgery on a ruptured Achilles, and has also sustained torn knee ligaments."
Bellew has skills, was slipping punches and countering well, but no way is he a hw with enough pop. Put him in with any of Wilder, Parker, Joshua, Wlad and he'd be KO'd quick. Going to the body would ruin him if you can't catch him clean.
The fight should've been postponed IMO, Haye had already damaged his Achilles and looks like he done zero actual sparring because of this. He was injured before he stepped in the ring, that's why his movement was awful and because of not doing any sparring his timing was way off. I reckon Sky have told him they'll never ever work with him again if he pulled out and he's probably been arrogant enough to think he can blow Bellew out of the ring in a round and when it didn't happen he just looked worse as the fight went on until the injury.
Hopefully there's no rematch and with Haye having had an op on his ankle and something to do with his knee ligaments today I think the chances of that happening are slim to none. Bit of a circus really but one of the more interesting PPVs of recent years :greengrin