Haye hobbles, Bellew soars!

It’s always nice to see arrogance humbled. That’s one of the reasons why it was so fantastic to see David Haye and his trainer Shane McGuigan lose last night. They thought they were untouchable, they thought they were so superior and in the end they were just losers.

Tony Bellew is an amazing man. How you go from making 12 stone 7 lbs to fighting at heavyweight in this day and age is stunning. I mean if Tony had stepped up to heavyweight and fought someone like Mark de Mori or even “The Cobra” Arnold Gjergjaj you might be right in questioning the validity of his claim to be taking on a real heavyweight, but they are the sort of opponents David Haye chose. Instead Tony went straight to one of the most dangerous heavyweights in the world, 16 stone of solid muscle. That is a great example of bravery.

The fight itself was an edge of the seat affair. Everyone knows about David’s power and it is also well known that Tony Bellew has been knocked down by men who are far less powerful than David Haye. So even when Haye aggravated an injury you still weren’t sure what the outcome would be. When Haye stumbled about the ring trying to muster up the strength to throw something at Tony you could feel compassion for him as he was clearly injured. Alternatively you could have willed Tony on to finish the job.

The question here is: can you really feel compassion for a man who promised to violently knock out and hospitalise his opponent? People choose to remember and disregard the pieces of information that they deem relevant. The most crucial piece of information is the fact that Tony won. Have a look at BoxRec if you are still in disbelief, there is clearly a W beside Tony’s name.

It’s quite fitting that Tony Bellew was an actor in a fictional story about boxing. Mr Bellew’s story is akin to a Hollywood film. He arrived on the scene as a larger than life personality at the infamous press conference with Cleverly, he had to recover from the knockout defeat to Stevenson. And he made his dream come true by becoming the Cruiserweight champion of the World at his beloved Goodison Park.

Outlasting the dangerous David Haye is just the most recent chapter in Tony’s story and its quite a story.

And in many ways, it’s not over yet. Ain't no stopping us now Tony :)

You can follow El Shane @spursssssss