Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport has responded to the circulating rumors that David Haye suffered some form of injury that was severe enough to force his withdrawal from the Tony Bellew rematch, which is set for December 17th at the O2 Arena in London.
The scenario is almost a replica of what happened prior to the first meeting - where there was talk of Haye suffering a bad injury where the initial bout was said to be in doubt. During that time, Haye did confirm that a minor injury was suffered - but it wasn't severe enough to postpone the fight.
The first bout took place in March at the O2, and saw Bellew secure a huge upset win with an eleventh round stoppage of Haye - who suffered a ruptured Achilles during the fight, which made him a one-legged fighter.
After the rumors of Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) suffering an injury broke out on the internet, a concerned Hearn began to hammer the phone lines to find out further information.
He believes the rumors were leaked out media outlets to play mind games with Bellew.
"I said to Tony Bellew – it’s probably they’ve leaked that, because that’s the sort of thing they do," Hearn told IFL TV. "When that broke I had spoken to a member of his team about the undercard about an hour before.
"I know he was training yesterday morning with a corporate day for Park Plaza, training fine. So I was a bit taken aback by it. So I spoke to the team and they said absolutely no problem."
Hearn also said Sky Sports conducted their own investigation and spoke to the fighter directly, and came up with the same result - that Haye was fine and ready to fight.
"Then Sky then spoke to David Haye and said – oh we’ve seen this and he said – absolutely not true. I’m 100 percent ready to go December 17th. It’s on," Hearn said.
