Yesterday, as per ‘Tha Boxing Voice,’ a story broke on how David Haye, who has been training very hard for his must-win return fight with arch-rival Tony Bellew, had suffered yet another injury (groan!) and how the fight was in serious jeopardy.
Stories like this often break on one boxing site or another; very regularly proving to have zero substance (and ‘Tha Boxing Voice’ is a fine boxing site all in all) – but due to Haye’s track-record, a good number of people got worried, with a number of other web sites running with the story. But Eddie Hearn, Bellew’s promoter, who is hoping for another big show on December 17 as well as a repeat win by his fighter, has quashed these rumours.
“I said to Tony Bellew – they’ve probably leaked that, because that’s the sort of thing they do,” Hearn told iIFL TV. “When that [story of Haye being injured] broke I had spoken to a member of his team about the under-card about an hour before. I know he was training yesterday morning, training fine. So I was a bit taken aback by it. So I spoke to the team and they said absolutely no problem. Then Sky spoke to David Haye – and said, ‘oh, we’ve seen this and he said’ – absolutely not true. I’m 100-percent ready to go on December 17. It’s on.”
Of course, there is always the chance Haye may suffer a legit injury during the fight, as was the case back in fight-one in March (Bellew winning via 11th round TKO when Haye, severely hampered by a torn Achilles, could not go on). Is Haye 100-percent fit and healthy for this fight? Will the former cruiserweight and WBA heavyweight champ ever be so again?
If Haye loses this one, his career will almost certainly be over. Can Bellew repeat his win if Haye does not suffer an injury of one kind or another? Yesterday, more than a few people worried how we would never get our answers. Now we can relax: this tough-to-pick rematch hasn’t gone anywhere.