Bellew: I Kicked Haye's Ass in Sparring, I'll Face Him at Heavyweight

By Edward Chaykovsky

Newly crowned WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew says he was just an amateur when he stepped into a sparring session with former two-division world champion David Haye.

Bellew claims he, along with Olympic bronze medal winner David Price, busted up Haye so bad that it caused him to withdraw from a scheduled fight.

On Sunday, Bellew (27-2-1, 17KOs) captured the WBC cruiserweight belt in Goodison Park with a brutal third round knockout of Ilunga Makabu. After the contest was over, he called for a fight with Haye (28-2, 26KOs).

Haye has been fighting in the heavyweight division since 2008. He posted a video response to Bellew's taunts, stating that he's more than willing to face the Liverpool fan-favorite, but refuses to come down to cruiserweight. If he won't come down, then Bellew is willing to come right up.

He told Sky Sports: "If he [Haye] wants to get down and train properly he could do cruiserweight but he's happy living the lifestyle he lives and parading around and if that's the way he wants to do it, we can do it at heavyweight. It's not an issue. I'll leave him to weigh whatever he wants.

"He's a small heavyweight. We're not talking about Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Deontay Wilder or David Price here. We're talking about me going in with a dwarf heavyweight - someone who's a built-up cruiserweight. He's a manufactured heavyweight and not a true heavyweight. Anything over 16st and he's slower anyway.

"I've sparred with David in the past and he knows what happened when we sparred. I was an unknown amateur at the time. What I will say is that I wasn't the guy pulling out of a fight 24 hours after that sparring session. He got his backside kicked and then pulled out of the Mark Hobson fight after that session. Hobson actually told him that he'd heard he'd been beaten up by two Scousers in Liverpool and that's why he was pulling out.

"He's got his views and I've got mine. The difference is that mine are the truth and his aren't. He called me a chump but he knows I'm not a chump because I gave him hell in a sparring session back then. The best person to ask on that sparring session is his trainer, Adam Booth. He got bounced all over the ring by me and David Price."