Last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, Tony Bellew believes that he humbled his bitter British rival David Haye with a shock 11th-round win in a non-title heavyweight fight.
Former World Boxing Association world heavyweight champion Haye suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the sixth round, leaving him an easy target as he stumbled and limped around the ring for second half of the fight.
Unable to move away from Bellew's blows, Haye got up from a count in the seventh round and bravely battled on until he was knocked out of the ring in the 11th round. As he was climbing back into the ring, Haye's trainer Shane McGuigan threw in the towel to the stop the fight.
Haye afterwards called for a rematch after a third career loss in his 31st fight which has shattered his hopes of facing one of the world heavyweight champions in the next 12 months.
Bellew, the reigning World Boxing Council world cruiserweight champion, took a lot of verbal abuse from Haye in the weeks leading up to their fight.
When the fight was stopped, Haye was very humble about the loss and openly praised Bellew.
"I think he's shown a more humble side to him, which he needed to show, because in the build-up to this fight, he said some horrendous things," Bellew told Sky Sports News HQ.
"It was at one stage I did send my children and my missus away from the country, because I didn't want them to hear what he was saying. My missus was in tears about this man saying how he was going to put me in hospital and he's going to end my career on that night. I sent them to Dubai, because I didn't want them to hear any more of what he had to say in all honesty."
"This whole build-up, I've just been me. I was there at the end. Would he have shown the same compassion to me? If he had done to me what he said he was going to do in one or two rounds, he would have just belittled me, laughed at me, and made a fool of me. He really, really would of. There was no way back for me. I looked at him and while my promoter and my trainer were jumping for joy and screaming on me, I looked at the man and he was hurt, he was badly, badly hurt.
"He didn't have one person close to him, I'm being totally honest, who cared and wanted to help him back, and I did. I felt for David, because I know what it's like to be a loser, I know what it's like to be stopped on my feet. I just wanted to help him back to his stool."
