What now for Haye & Bellew?

Haye needs to retire, Even when he did land good shots Bellew took them. He was predictable inaccurate and other than his jab couldn't get anything going. Plus and this was the biggest thing for me his balance was awful now that's probably because the injury was already present or at least showing up but he's not going to get any better after more surgery and another huge layoff.

Bellew should go down to crusier. Wilder is god awful but he hits like a truck and sooner or later the size and weight difference will tell. Same for Parker who is much more accurate than the Haye of Saturday night takes a decent shot and puts his own offense well.

Bellew should try and get one of the other CW champs over unify if possible - his stock will never be higher and then see what he wants to do. Continuing full blow heavys is gunna lead to a world of hurt

 

The psychological damage of continually going through hard camps for big fights and getting injured to the point that you have to pull out and face public ridicule or fight well below your best, must be hard to take.

This comeback was with Shane was predicated on the idea that he had overhauled his training, changed his diet etc specifically to look after his body prevent injury. 'Hayemaker 2.0'.

Then this. Another major injury, except this time mid-fight of what should have been a comfortable win.. And ends up an embarrassing loss. Is he still motivated enough to go through more rehab and training camps? I want to see the rematch but if he loses again he's finished.

Oh if only he had fought Parker as the WBO mandatory. He could already be a world champion by now.

 

Hindsight is crazy. Looking back Haye should have fought ASAP after Gjergaj. I know he said Briggs was only willing to fight if it was on PPV but he should have done everything possible to make that fight happen. He could have beaten Briggs a month or two after Gjergaj and then he would have been sanctioned to fight Oquendo for the vacant belt. Bellew would have been an irrelevance.

Generally after De Mori, he should have attempted to fight every two months. Having long camps are far more destructive on the body than fights that end in a couple rounds.

 

Would the Haye that was swinging and missing by miles have beaten Briggs? There's no telling really but it's by no means a forgone conclusion. Briggs is a genuine heavy even if Haye had landed something big he probably would have taken it.

Its game over for Haye hes shot

 

I'm assuming the reason for the wild swings and the lack of balance was the Achilles. IMO it was clear he was in the ring injured from the get go and then aggravated it. There is a reason he was swinging wildly to try and take Bellew out in the first round.

Look at Haye in the De Mori and Gjergaj fights. Mug opponents yes, but there's no wild swinging from Haye. He was just injured and probably should not have boxed.

 

I think there's something to that but I still felt he was missing something against Di Mori and Arnold he just didn't seem as fast or explosive. He got them both out of there but like you say they were dire opponents.

 

We don't know to what extent his swinging and missing was because of the injury he clearly took into the fight. But he could just be old and slow. Who knows.

Briggs is a fairly easy to hit 45 year old asthmatic that gases after throwing more than a few punches a round. Much easier fight than Bellew in my opinion.

 

Disagree strongly with this. In context this is absolutely NOT an embarrassing loss and Haye can hold his head up high.

 

easier to hit...but much bigger power coming the other way and Haye didn't really make toney miss all that much..
I think its a combination of an injury and being much slower than he was..jab aside i though he looked pedestrian at times

 

Not convinced the injury was already there, why would you enter the ring in low cut ankle boots if that was the case? Surely you'd go for a traditional boot with plenty of strapping below it?

 

Comes away with more respect and admiration from the general public than if he had sparked Bellew with the first punch.

 

It is embarrasing for the fact that..

1. The majority of fans were so horny for Bellew to win that in the aftermatch a lot people are blindly ignoring the fact Haye was completely debilitated in there and view it as some clear cut 'Bellew knockout victory'.
2. Haye did so much trash talking in the built up, that people will say he still should've got him out of there before the 6th.

A lot of Boxing fans, especially British one's, are incredibly fickle and like to ignore nuances in favour of hurr durr 'he's crap, or he's the new Mike Tyson'.

Sure he can hold his head high for his courage. But the history books will say Haye lost to Bellew by TKO. And that's how it will be remembered.

 

Very easily.

 

The injury was obviously already there, unless you think its a huge coincidence that his achilles ruptured, when a few days earlier it was all over the press that he'd damaged it.

Haye went into this fight injured, but probably thought he could bang Bellew out of there before he did any further damage to it. It would explain his wild swings in the opening couple of rounds.

 

Haye is old, his body is broken and he is clearly shot to shinola.

His best match out there is a Bellew rematch. If he could stick to a game plan of jab and move, lose some muscle and bulk to allow him to not gas, he could cruise to a UD over Bellew. But he would have to be able to do 12 rounds.

After that he could try cashing out with a HW match, and then retire.

Bellew is not a HW, but his biggest pay is a Haye rematch. Same game plan as last time pretty much.

After that he should move back down to CW and defend once and then retire.