TONY BELLEW ended up confronting David Haye after he had defended his WBC cruiserweight world title from BJ Flores on Saturday, drumming up interest in a showdown. For that fight Bellew would have to move up to heavyweight, says promoter Eddie Hearn.
“He’s not going to want to come down to cruiserweight so Tony’s got to go to heavyweight. If there’s a max weight, rather than a catchweight, I think that might be likely. But the bottom line is if he hits Haye, he knocks him out and if Haye hits him, he knocks him out. But that’s the excitement of the fight. I think a lot depends on what opens up for Haye,” Hearn said. “He [Haye] might also want to be picking up a belt. But the belts don’t matter as much for him because if he beats him, he can fight AJ next summer anyway. So maybe this is a final eliminator for Anthony Joshua.”
Bellew isn’t planning on moving up to a third weight class and becoming a heavyweight fixture. He would only go to heavyweight to fight Haye. “He’s just looking at Haye rather than saying I’m going to move up and become a two weight world champion,” Hearn said. “He’s probably 15st plus now. What did Haye weight in his last fight? 16st? He’d probably be giving away a stone. But it’s heavyweight so so what?
“I would say Flores was probably 15st 8, 15st 9 tonight. But he [Bellew] is probably 15st 2. He’s never been the most aesthetic boxer of all time but he can put some muscle on. He doesn’t need to, he’s fast. The one thing he’s got is, people will laugh when I say, he’s probably got similar hand speed to Haye. But don’t forget Haye’s up at heavyweight so he looks a lot faster. But they have got similar hand speed. But he fancies the fight, it’s a great fight, the build up will be phenomenal. So we’ll try and make it.”
