There is a heavyweight Boxing showdown on Saturday as bitter rivals Tony Bellew and David Haye step into the ring. At the pre-fight press conference this week the two fighters had to be kept apart after launching a tirade of verbal attacks on each other. The fight will be hosted at the O2 Arena in London and this is arguable the most hateful of grudge fights that the UK has seen for a long, long time. Just back in November there was a physical clash between the two of them at a press conference.
David Haye is back after a four year layoff from the sport and has only taken on limited opposition on his return. Haye’s last fight of any significance was his 2011 loss against Wladimir Klitschko which he lost despite sticking the distance over twelve rounds. Since then he has posted three TKO wins over Dereck Chisora, Mark de Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj respectively. Exactly. Not the stiffest of opposition by any stretch of the imagination. The “Hayemaker” is now 36 year old and not running his prime.
That is something which the younger Bellew is banking on, his opponent running out of steam the longer the fight goes. Haye holds a W28 L2 record from his career, with all but two of those wins coming through a knockout. He is a heavy hitter who generally has relied on pulling out that one big haymaker (hence the nickname) to finish off his opponents. During his career he has beaten six world championship in fluctuations between Cruiserweight and Heavyweight.
Haye is seen at the core of things as being a more natural Cruiserweight which is where Bellew has been making his name. Bellew is the WBC cruiserweight champion but he is taking the step up to the heavyweight realm for his fight with Haye, because really there was no chance of Haye coming down, not after having build up to the heavyweight level again. Bellew has not held back at all verbally, calling out Haye for his weak opponents on his return and for the Hayemaker being past his prime.
Bellew has been busy with 13 fights in the last three and a half years, and like Haye is a heavy hitter. But like Haye he has defeats on his record in a W28 D1 L2 record from his 31 professional fights. He won the vacant WBC Cruiserweight title in May last year in beating Ilunga Makabu and retained it later in the year against BJ Flores. That is back to back knockout victories for Bellew now and the March 4th meeting in London with Haye is going to produce the fireworks.
Neither really have a lot to lose. If Bellew suffered the loss then he can still hold his own back in the cruiserweight division easily enough and only his pride will have been wounded. For Haye, he has something to prove to critics as well as to the strength of his shoulders after surgery back in 2013m because he hasn’t been in the ring long enough against anyone of quality for punters to really know his level right now. If Haye does lose this one, it could be the last time that you will see him in the ring though.
Tony Bellew v David Haye Boxing Predictions
Haye is favourite here and rightly so. Bellew will stand toe to toe with Haye, but hasn’t got quite as much power in his arsenal as they Hayemaker. This is a big step up in division for Bellew too and at the light heavyweight level he was knocked out by Adonis Stevenson and Haye will certainly pack a bigger punch that the Canadian. The longer that this one goes on, you can see Bellew making more and more of a nuisance of himself. But Haye will probably have landed some damaging blows by then to have taken some kind of sting out of his opponent. Look for a Haye to win this one by KO TKO or Disqualification but that is only a 3/10 option at Coral so you are going to have to get creative with your beating here for value. Haye will know that he needs to finish this quickly and a Haye Round 5 victory at 15/2 with Coral looks good value. Stretch out to the coverage though in Round Group Betting for the match to be settled by Haye in Round 5-8.
Tony Bellew v David Haye Boxing Odds
David Haye 1/7, Tony Bellew 9/2, Draw 33/1
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