By Edward Chaykovsky
WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew insists that he really busted up David Haye in a sparring session several years ago.
Haye was sitting ringside at the Echo Arena in Liverpool and watched his close friend BJ Flores get knocked out in three rounds by Bellew (28-2-1, 18KOs) - who was making the first defense of the title he captured back in May in Goodison Park with a brutal third round knockout of Ilunga Makabu. Flores was knocked down four times before the contest was waved off.
After the contest was over, he called for a fight with Haye (28-2, 26KOs). He made attempts to physically confront Haye. Bellew was restrained by his camp members and security.
Bellew has long claimed that he, along with Olympic bronze medal winner David Price, busted up Haye so bad in a sparring session that it caused him to withdraw from a scheduled fight. The alleged incident took place several years ago when Bellew was still an amateur.
Haye, a former cruiserweight and world heavyweight champion, believes a fight with Bellew would be a complete mismatch. Bellew is confident he would knock Haye out and dominate him as he claims to have done in their sparring session.
"I heard what [Haye] said, that he could beat me with one hand. Do you know that the last time we sparred, I was a boy coming off my first [amateur] title. And he hit me, and [Haye's former trainer] Adam Booth was there, he hit me with best he had and nothing happened. And he was shocked, shell shocked that I was still standing," Bellew told IFL TV.
"What happened in the rest of the spar? He got smashed to bits. He got punched all over the place. Pricey hit him with a right hand that spun him 360 and got put down on one knee by me. The next day he pulled out of his fight with Mark Hobson. And Mark Hobson went to the local media at the time, and I don't think there was Twitter at the time, Mark Hobson put something in the paper that said 'I heard you got a hiding from two heavyweights in Liverpool' and that was true."
"And that's a fact, that's not me telling lies. [It was] many years ago, it doesn't really have much of a reflection on the fight now, but I'm just telling you that when I was a boy, fresh off me first [amateur] title, I kicked his ass in the gym and he paid me 100 pounds for doing it - and this time I'm going to get paid a lot more for kicking his ass."
