Almost a month has passed since Tony Bellew recorded a shock victory over David Haye at the O2 Arena in London.
The Liverpudlian beat the much-fancied Haye in the 11th round after his opponent damaged his Achilles tendon following a slip midway through the bout.
Haye insisted it wasn’t an excuse and that Bellew had won “fair and square” - but in truth, the outcome could have been very different had Haye, who bravely fought on from the sixth round onwards, not suffered such a serious injury.
“It is what it is, he beat me fair and square and there are no excuses,” Haye told Sky Box Office, per the Daily Mail, immediately after his surprise loss. “I gave him my best, he took it and gave it back to me. I couldn't take it. If he would oblige me the chance I would go to his hometown and if the fans want to see that up-and-down fight again then we can give it to them.
“Tony is a great fighter, I trained great and wanted a demolition job but he has a heart of a lion. I have knocked out bigger people with a lot less so I take my hat off to him. I believe I am more gifted but he has a bigger heart, I'd love to do it again.”
The trash-talk crossed the line
Haye’s respectful post-fight comments came across as bizarre, if not disingenuous, given the long list of insults and threats he’d directed towards Bellew before the fight. At times, the trash talking undoubtedly crossed the line.
It seemed there was genuine animosity between the two fighters, with Haye even expressing his desire to hospitalise his opponent.
Bellew: I made a will before Haye fight
And that wasn’t a threat Bellew took lightly. The 34-year-old was genuinely worried the fight could have had devastating consequences for him and subsequently made a will in case he suffered a fatal injury.
“There’s people in situations and it’s very, very frightening. The situations some fighters have been in recently. I’ll be honest, it scares me,” Bellew told Boxing News this week.
“People don’t know this but I wrote a will before that fight. It’s the only time I’ve ever done it in my whole career.
"I wrote a will two weeks before leaving everything to my missus in case anything happened to me because I knew he was capable of really, really hurting me.
“Don’t get me wrong, I knew I’m capable of hurting him too. That’s the extreme measure I went to. To hear this guy saying the things he was saying, I just found it absolutely disgusting."
Chances of a rematch... slim?
Although it was all smiles after the fight, it’s clear Bellew still hasn’t forgiven Haye for some of the things he said beforehand.
You’d have to imagine, therefore, that the chances of a rematch actually happening are fairly slim.