He definitely looked gassed in the 3rd, which is the only reason I assume he started exchanging recklessly which led to the knockdown. Strange because he actually tried boxing the first 2 rounds. Are we to assume he did no cardio for this fight? It’s strange as his conditioning was better for the first bellew fight, and that was with the Achilles injury he had going into it
I know, His gameplan was wrong too, Haye was too open and walking onto shots, it just looked a mess, maybe the mind games of Tony got to Haye, he was head hunting from early made it personal again..
I think he became a con man at heavyweight. everything he did at that weight was smoke and mirrors in my mind, the Valuev fight was a joke. At cruiser he was the real thing though, but he couldn't do what Holyfield did by a long stretch.
I think he knew he was done when he clipped Tony a few times but had little effect. He knew the longer the fight went the worse it would get for him so got in that exchange thinking Bellew wouldn't be able to hurt him. despite the shape he was in he probably felt he just needed to land a few hard punches but he ended up being even more wrong than he was the first fight. Bellew looked better this time, I give him a lot more credit in this fight as he got the job done more convincingly.
Mess is a good word for it. Not sure it was the mind games though. Haye always relied on pure athleticism to get insane speed and leverage on his punches. With the athleticism gone he's just a 3rd rate plodder who doesn't even have much of a punch. Funny thing is Bellew becomes seriously over-rated after this. Talk of Fury and Ward? Has everyone forgotten his **** weak capitulation against Stevenson?
It seems mad to say it, but the beginning of the end wasn't Haye gassing, it was Haye attempting to put it on Bellew for the first time towards the end of the third. Nothing connected and Haye was slow and ragged with it. instead of backing away and moving off, Bellew returned fire backing Haye up, got him into an exchange on the ropes and beat him to the punch. Bellew's bread and butter in his late career resurgence has been getting people to trade with him and winning the exchange. It's what made him so scary as an amateur and what seemed to be lacking for most of his time at light heavyweight. Never hook with a hooker. While David of old may have beaten Bellew to the punch he was second best in every exchange on Saturday. Bellew was very cute with it too, breaking rhythm and catching Haye with shots he wasn't expecting. It's to the extent that I think if Bellew had gone for it from the off it would probably have been over for Haye in a round. He was just so much slower and less accurate in exchanges than Bellew that the early 'boxing' seemed like nothing more than Bellew biding his time.
First two rounds he boxed and it looked an even fight. Soon as he started head hunting in the third it was all over. It did make me think how dumb is haye too make the same mistake as the last fight when he could have simply stuck to his boxing. I think 2 things made him revert back to swinging. 1. He knew that only a comprehensive victory would do. I.e a brutal knockout. Him trying to scrape a points win by jabbing and grabbing or losing narrowly on the scorecards was never going to do anything for his career. He knew to be taken seriously he had to look convincing. It was all or nothing I'm afraid. 2. He just couldn't help himself, that's all he knows to just try and knock guys heads off. It's engrained in him and he doesn't have a plan b. Also foolishly he still even after the first fight believed he still has what it takes to fight like he did 10 years ago.
I think people underestimate some of the boxers boxing IQ,s. These guys have been fighting for years most since childhood. Haye didn't,t get conned into a shootout. He was spent after 2. I actually thought he boxed well them first two rounds...looked hampered by injury. But still looked a lot better than the first fight swinging from the off. I don't think bellew was enjoying them first two rounds. Hayes cardio was so bad tho...most probably through lack of training...he knew he wasn't,t gonna last the pace and at that point tried to turn it into a firefight. The thing was bellew is now the harder sharper cleaner puncher. Was only gonna end one way. But probably gave him as much of a chance as if he,d have kept with the boxing. The tank was going after two rounds. Think the reality is hes not even capable of a training camp...let alone a fight. Its no wonder really when you consider in this camp alone hes been recovering from an Achilles operation....a left bicep operation plus add the right shoulder apparently being career ending about five years ago. Theirs very little real serious training you can do with that. That' just what we know about as well. My guess is they trained but at about thirty percent. You need a hundred percent to last the pace of a fight at that level.
The defeat to Stevenson was at 175ib, 5 years ago. Baffles me how people still use that as a point of reference. Get any fighter to boil down from their natural fighting weight (not walking around weight!) by 16% and throw them in with an elite fighter. They’d get their backside handed to them.
Think it's number 2 though he can stick to a gameplan. The problem for this fight, he is so arrogant he thought Bellew didn't deserve to share the same ring with him. The amount of disdain he has for bellew, he simply couldn't help himself from trying to blast him out. It's funny seeing his fanboys looking high and low for all sorts of reasons to makes excuses for Haye. So far we have Injuries Doctors His nutritionist Plants Ismeal Salas Yet you never see any of these sour bitter nutthugging morons who were shouting from the rooftops before both fights, that Haye was going to blast Bellew out within a few rounds, give Tony any credit for taking his best shots, holding centre ring and taking the fight to Haye and smashing his chin to pieces.
Seriously, watch the punch-up with Derek Chisora and entourage at that press conference, that was pretty bad ass. That was three on one, and he even took out his own trainer Adam Booth. Total G.
the way Haye took care of Chisora overall was pretty bad ass to be fair. Probably one of his few highlights as a heavyweight. An underrated beat down that no one else has managed to replicate.
