Tony Bellew and David Haye take up their long drawn out rivalry on Saturday night May 5 at the O2 arena in London and once again Haye is the favourite to do what he couldn’t do in March last year and defeat the popular Liverpool man.
Haye carrying an Achilles injury into the fight, failed dramatically last time around in an embarrassing display, he lunged, missed and fell and looked a shadow of the former excellent cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion he was a decade ago.
What can the Hayemaker do differently this time? A change of coach sees Cuban Ismael Salas on the team and a lighter, fitter looking fighter suggests he has given Tony Bellew a lot more respect this time around.
David Haye on paper has the better credentials and experience and is more the natural heavyweight at this late stage in his career. Excellent wins at cruiserweight over Jean-Marc Mormeck and at heavyweight over Nikolai Valuev, John Ruiz, and Derek Chisora all suggest a fit injury free Haye should win with ease.
Tony Bellew however has other ideas and has always been supremely confident he has the Londoner’s number. Bellew was terrific in their first fight and countered well, evaded most of the big punches from Haye, and what punches he had to take, he did without a problem and punished Haye in the later stages to force the stoppage in the 11th round of a drama filled shoot out.
A year has come and gone since that first wild encounter and a bicep injury for Haye put the fight back until this weekend. So what can we expect one year on? Haye is now 37 and has had 14 rounds of competitive boxing only in the last six years, which speaks for itself and no amount of sparring prepares you fully for the adrenaline packed charge of fight night.
This is a very difficult fight to call as quite frankly anything could happen with two big punchers a little past their prime but my head says if Haye and his fragile body couldn’t do it over a year ago he can’t do it now.