Tony Bellew vs. David Haye: Thoughts
We are just over a week away from the Bellew vs. Haye rematch, and while the venom of the pre-fight isn’t what it was the first time around, both fighters still have plenty to say. Haye in an interview with Sky Sports had this to say: “The Dereck Chisora fight was my last competitive boxing match. Outside of that, in the two comeback fights, I didn’t get punched once. It was just me beating someone up,” Haye told Sky Sports. “I overestimated how good I was. I thought that I was as good as I was in 2012. You can’t just take a break, come back, and expect to be just as good. You need to work your way back up.” As for Tony Bellew, he sounds confident he will repeat his previous win: “I’ll beat David Haye no matter what day of the year it is,” Bellew says. “I’m faster than anyone he’s ever faced, I’m someone who can dictate, I’m someone who can make him miss, I’m someone who’s got enough pop in his punch to make him think twice about engaging. I’m not saying I’m better than any fighter he’s faced because he’s faced much better fighters than me – Wladimir Klitschko is far better than me – but he can’t do the things that I can do.” You can take what each said however you want, Bellew is convinced the same result will happen again, and his confidence will certainly be greater than it was for the first fight. Haye from his comments and watching him on The Gloves Are Off, I sense there is a genuine acknowledgement that there will be no more chances, he simply has to win. There is no doubt he did underestimate Bellew last time and the fact that he accepts what went wrong before, does indicate that he will perform better in the rematch if his body allows him to. That is the nagging doubt that even Haye will not totally be able to eradicate from his mindset. Even if the mind is willing the body might not be.