By Edward Chaykovsky
Last week, WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) revealed that he's walking around at 225-pounds, as he packed on some mass for the upcoming grudge fight with David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs).
Bellew and Haye will collide on March 4th from The O2 Arena in London, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
The two fighters recently came face to face at a taping for "The Gloves Are Off" special to promote their pay-per-view event.
In recent weeks, Bellew has been questioning the heart and desire of Haye. He believes Haye will fall apart, physically and mentally, if the fight goes beyond the fourth round.
Bellew still claims that he battered Haye during a sparring session which took place many years ago, which allegedly was the reason behind Haye's withdrawal from a scheduled fight.
"He needs something to get confidence from, and won't get confidence from my attributes. So he says that I've got no heart. He went to back to 2001, back to 2004. This is how far back he went to find these moments where he believes I swallowed it," Haye told Sky Sports.
"Sometimes you say things so much, you start believing your own lies. The reality of the situation is that he knows how athletic I am, and how hard I hit. So unless he's going to get a chin transplant…
When they came face to face for their recent taping, Haye felt Bellew was out of shape and appeared to be very nervous. Many experts feel Bellew is making a very big mistake by jumping up to the heavyweight division, where Haye is a former world champion and regarded as a very big puncher in the weight class.
"He was super-jittery, and super-nervous. He looked fat. He looked like he's going to get knocked out, real quick," Haye said.