Two fine fighters of contrasting temperaments but shared instincts – Paulie Malignaggi and Derry Mathews – said their reluctant goodbyes to boxing at the O2 Arena in London and, while both will be missed, they were right to bow to the inevitable. Whether David Haye follows their lead should be learned in the next few days.
In the tumult after Tony Bellew’s measured and universally unexpected deconstruction of Haye in front of 20,000 fans in the main event on Saturday night Haye retreated as graciously as he could to a nearby hospital and underwent surgery on Monday for the damaged achilles that hobbled him from the sixth round to the inglorious end, when he was within four minutes of reaching the final bell.
Clearly in pain, Haye composed himself afterwards in the ring to pay Bellew his due. “No excuses, the better man won,” he said. But the former world heavyweight champion, who came to this bout with only eight competitive rounds in five years, will do well to rediscover the motivation to carry on. When the Hayemaker turned into the Pacemaker, running on pure heart for the last quarter of an hour, he probably did himself a favour because, at 36, his big-fight options are now limited. He has always been a star but the glow has dimmed.
Haye has given enough, and taken his share, including an estimated £4m of the £7m set aside for the fighters from a pot expected to top £13m after the pay-per-view numbers come in.
It is as good a time as ever to leave for a born playboy who prepared for this fight on a Miami yacht and whose idea of a good late night is in a club rather than a boxing ring. But he can depart with honour.
Hobbling on one good leg after his achilles went, and swinging in vain as Bellew hunted him down to deliver the finishing left hook, Haye could not have done any more to redeem a reputation shredded to the point of derision six years ago, when he claimed a bruised big toe had prevented him performing to his potential against Wladimir Klitschko. Many fans acknowledged his effort; some did not. They are a hard audience.
Bellew, to his credit, did not buy into the universal goading of Haye in 2011 or since, admitting in victory the pre-fight nonsense between them was just that, and their embrace when the fireworks subsided was heartfelt. It remains a minor wonder that anyone falls for the tired schtick of manufactured animosity.
Malignaggi, the slick 36-year-old New Yorker who won world titles at two weights and once said a career in porn was an attractive alternative to the fight game, is no stranger to hype but reality kicked in viciously in his adopted city. Although he has already established a post-fight career behind any microphone presented to him back at the day job, he was reacquainted with a truth any respected analyst would have seen when the younger, stronger, more ambitious Brummie, Sam Eggington, battered him into submission in the ninth round.
Before heading for his Sky Sports commentary spot to offer his thoughts on Haye-Bellew – with trademark shades hiding his bruises – the American who calls the UK his second home, said: “I didn’t want to come in thinking this was my last fight, because then you can’t give your all, but I feel I’ve got a great job ringside, living through the fighters. I’ll make an official announcement this week but I probably am done. There’s not enough time to come back at 36. I finished my career at 36 and 8 and only lost to world champions and this guy.”
He added: “For 15 seconds I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to so badly go out a winner in this arena in front of these fans. I knew when I was going down, he’d got me. It was a big shot. I thought it was a close fight. I don’t have the legs I had. The silver lining is Sam Eggington can go on from here.” Eggington is the mandatory challenger for the European title. “Whatever comes,” he said. Oh, the freedom of youth.
Mathews, as down to earth as his friend Bellew, does not contemplate much glamour after boxing but he is nonetheless content. The 33-year-old Liverpudlian now has to handle a retirement he probably saw coming even before the brash, unbeaten young Londoner O’Hara Davies stopped him with a hook to the head and a body shot in the third round.
Mathews, who held a fringe version of the world featherweight title and two British belts in a 52-fight career, said later: “I wouldn’t say it was so much age, because I live a clean life, but it’s the fights. But listen, I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve never ducked anyone. I’ve been in with the best.”
As Bellew said later, Mathews “is one of the nicest guys in boxing”. As for Davies, the former world cruiserweight champion, Johnny Nelson, got it right when he said: “He’s a world champion in the making.” A domestic fight up the road to savour would be against the unbeaten Scottish light-welter Josh Taylor, who fights the South African Warren Joubert for the Commonwealth title in Edinburgh on 24 March.
Lee Selby, uncomfortable with being labelled the Welsh Mayweather, nevertheless continues to impress with his outrageous boxing skills and edges closer to the fight he craves, against the recently dethroned Carl Frampton.
Selby’s defence of his IBF featherweight title, in January on the Las Vegas undercard when Frampton lost his WBA “super” title to Leo Santa Cruz, was scuppered when Jonathan Victor Barros withdrew moments before the weigh-in.
Selby ticked over on Saturday night by stopping the willing Spaniard Andoni Gago López in the ninth of 10 rounds. “I’m looking to be involved in a massive fight against either Carl Frampton, Leo Santa Cruz or Abner Mares [the WBA ‘regular’ champion],” he said. “I’m a gym rat. If I’m not in the gym, I’m at home with my family.”
Nobody could accuse the entertaining heavyweight Dave Evans of hogging the gym but he looked good stopping his fellow Yorkshireman and 6ft 8in former volleyball international David Howe in two rounds, seven days after doing a similar job on the 35-year-old Polish journeyman Lukasz Rusiewicz in front of a few hundred fans at the Ice Arena in Hull. “Outside the local, probably, is the last time I had two fights in a week,” said the ever quotable “White Rhino”.
