David Haye’s 16-year boxing adventure is all but parked in the past, while his conqueror for the second time at the seething O2 Arena, Tony Bellew, is determined to rumble on to even bigger nights against Andre Ward or even Tyson Fury.
Bellew – just two years younger than Haye at 35 but whose boxing, fitness and prospects are on a decidedly more upward curve – played the perfect waiting game to dismantle the former world cruiserweight and heavyweight champion on Saturday night. After coming through an early examination of his patience, he felled Haye twice in the third round and again in the fifth with a perfect left hook, ecstatic when the referee rescued his dazed foe on the ropes, physically upright but spiritually bowed.
Haye, for the first time anyone could remember, did not attend the post-fight press conference. There was no injury excuse – just a battered ego – but he must have sensed this was not his time, even though he hinted in the ring he might carry on. That would be grand folly. However, there was no containing his ebullient Liverpudlian tormentor.
“It’s hard when you have had your defining moment,” he said of their rematch, “but I like fighting and I like challenges. I am not stopping now.”
As for the 34-year-old Ward – who has not fought since stopping Sergey Kovalev in eight rounds last June – Bellew says he has spoken to the American, who is keen to resume his career. “Ward wants the fight, he thinks he can beat me easy. You will all laugh and say I wouldn’t have a chance, but I would knock Andre Ward out – or I will outbox him. He is a pound-for-pound great but I can match him on the inside, and he has never fought anyone who could do that. Styles make fights. He is BHop [Bernard Hopkins, who retired at 51 in 2016] but 20 years younger. I also want to knock Tyson Fury out. I really like that fight. There are loads of fights out there.”
Rattling through his engaging schtick as if caught with his hand in the sweet jar, Bellew paused to express a measure of sympathy for Haye. “We’ll never be friends but I respect him,” he said, adding he begged Haye to quit boxing in the immediate aftermath. “My first words when we hugged were, ‘Please stop, please, please stop.’ This is an unforgiving sport, a young man’s game for fighters with his attributes of reflexes and speed.
“I was hoping for a war and that he would beat the fire out of me. But all he’s done is made the fire even worse. He’s just added to the flames. I want to punch everything and fight the world.
“I have been through a lot but I don’t want to hurt anyone. The ref should have stopped that in the third round. I told him: ‘Stop the fight.’ But this is a cold-blooded business and I forgot about everything when that bell went. I enjoyed the havoc. I defy anyone in the world to trade with me. Boxing is the only thing I have ever understood – I certainly don’t understand women.”
Rachael, who he will marry in July, does not come to his fights and she and their extended family are still recovering from the death of her brother, Ashley, on holiday in Mexico last year. “Emotionally, I haven’t really been there this camp,” Bellew revealed. “I’m in a room at night, I’m on my jack and you cry yourself to sleep because your missus is gone. And you can’t do it in front of her because of my brother-in-law. It’s hard. The family is broken. Tonight I had his dad sitting there. I left an empty seat at ringside, and they’re not cheap. I left it for him and I know he was there. I dedicate this fight to Ash. I know he is watching me and he’s smiling at me and laughing at me. He’s getting ready for the Champions League final.”
Bellew, an Everton fan and proud Scouser who secretly might be grudgingly happy for Liverpool reaching the Champions League final, values family and friends above his trade, but admits he has a few itches to scratch yet. “I won’t go on too long, but I ain’t stopping now. Just let me get past 1.30pm on Sunday when her flight touches down and I’ll try and talk her round.”
Haye, meanwhile, has retreated from view to mull over his future. He said beforehand he would retire, even if he won, if the performance was not good enough. He started brightly but his balance, composure and punch resistance collapsed after two rounds. If he is true to his word, there is nowhere left for him to go in a sport he has decorated with exciting performances, some outrageous hype and never less than total heart.
