The war of words between Tony Bellew and David Haye has been going on for a long, long time now.

The two were firmly at each others throats before their first bout last year, with Bellew emerging the victor courtesy of a 11th-round TKO after Haye had picked up a serious Achilles injury.

Pretty much as soon as the first fight was over and they had embraced in the ring, they were back at it again, with a rematch soon organised.

The date was originally set at December 31, but it had to be postponed to this Saturday due to Haye picking up a serious pectoral injury.

During that time, the war of words seem to enter it's calmest period, but it has certainly reached peak level in the past few days.

In fact, things got physical at their final press conference, with Bellew actually shoving Haye in the throat during their face-off.

It was a tense moment and both fighters have said their piece in the aftermath, with Bellew now coming out and labelling one aspect of Haye's build-up to the fight 'criminal'.

The Bomber believes that the Hayemaker's decision to make trainer Ismael Salas attend the fight and not make it to be in Jorge Linares' corner when he takes on Vasyl Lomachenko next weekend is simply not on.

“He’s a world-class coach, Ismael Salas,” Bellew told Press Association Sport. “Fantastic. I’ve got all the respect in the world for him.

“It’s an absolute liberty that he was forced to leave his long-time student, in Jorge Linares, to train David Haye. That was criminal; it was terrible that, it was wrong. But that’s not my place – what can I do about that?

“I feel for Jorge Linares; brilliant fighter going into the fight of his life against Vasyl Lomachenko, and he loses his trainer, because David Haye demands he should stay with him. It’s wrong.”

He might have a point, with Haye only calling on Salas to replace Shane McGuigan after his loss to Bellew.

Linares will be missing a huge presence in his corner when he takes on the Ukrainian machine that is Lomachenko.