Was Haye beating Bellew in the first fight before the injury?

I was with my mate who was a pretty bad gambler at the time (probably still is) and he’d put an accumulator on earlier on in the year, a couple of grand, and the last thing he needed was Haye to knock Bellew out for 30 grand, he was that sure about it, as most were pre fight, that he’d already been planning to buy his new car (first car we were about 18) after round one he has his head in his hands, Haye looked absolutely shot to pieces, he looked like he’d been for about 6 pints before the fight, windmilling these silly left hooks, I’ll always remember the joy on bellew and coldwells face when bellew sat down after the first and he was shouting gleefully at coldwell ‘he’s slow, he’s slow!’ It’s actually surprising looking back how on earth bellew didn’t take him out earlier

 

Bellew got the lion's share in the rematch , pretty much reversing the purses and guarantees from the first fight.

In reality Haye should've taken anything he was offered for the rematch, being barely able to walk.

 

Lets not forget how Haye conned the public and his long standing fanbase into selling out the O2 twice against two cherry picked opponents with padded records, literally 2 guys who nobody had ever heard of. Haye victim Mark de Mori has recently spent the last 7 years padding out his record again against the likes of Laszlo Toth (trilogy) and has now landed a shot against Hrgvic on the Saudi mismatch card to flog his 42-2 record, tricking people into believing he is a credible opponent again. Haye was skint and needed money so they (the management company who were handling him) made a plan to have 2 comeback fights con the public that he was 'back to his best' and then find someone to cash out against. Bellew was in the right place at the right time so que the fake beef.

One of the worst heavyweight champs of all time. 2 defences against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison and shat it against Klitschko.

 

The o2 was not sold out for either of those fights lol

 

Multiple newspaper reports and journalists quoting the Mark de Mori event was sold out to a 16,000 capacity crowd.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/g...estroys-mark-de-mori-in-one-round-in-pictures

"Haye enters the ring to a sell out crowd of 16,000 at the O2 Arena for his comeback"

bleacherreport.com/articles/2608454-david-haye-vs-mark-de-mori-lessons-learned-from-london-fight

"Despite his period of inactivity, and despite fighting someone whose CV was, to put it nicely, distinctly weak, Haye still managed to draw a crowd."

Ron Lewis
@RonLewisTimes
Sensational turnout for David Haye's return tonight. The O2 look pretty much full. #boxing

"Per Gareth A Davies of the Telegraph, the 16,000-capacity O2 Arena was sold out.

 

Thanks for the bizarre listed multiple jorno quotes, but the o2 holds 20,000.

 

The venue itself says 18,000 if you try to book it. Fewer seats on the floor and a bit less hospitality, you soon get to 16,500. The capacity is really up to the promoter.

 

First fight he was a shadow and winning with jabs to the body. Second fight he could barely stand up. I got conned and went to both ha.

 

Haye in and out the ring is very strange guy, I never quite trusted him with anything, loves a pound note

 

I think that’s unfair, name me a boxer who doesn’t like making money. I know him well and he’s a good guy. Also he’s very accessible to boxing fans and from what I have seen is always friendly to them.

 

Bud I’ve just comeback from watching Peter Kay at the o2 tonight and there were 20,000 people there. It was set up for that and it was a sell out.

 

He’s a nice bloke out of the ring. Has a lot of time for fans.

 

When you look at some of the mess we've seen on PPV before, I think it was right to be. Both big British names, genuine rivalry/hate, rematch, it did make sense. The storyline was written that Bellew got lucky and Haye would get revenge. Obviously, in hindsight, Haye was shot and had too many injuries. I'm not sure what the undercard was like though or what figures it did.