Bellew vs Haye: Carl Froch predicts thrilling 50/50 rematch — but only if Haye’s body manages to hold up

Despite Haye’s injury problems and the overarching assumption that he will be fighting through the pain barrier, he enters the fight as the bookmakers' favourite

Carl Froch has questioned whether David Haye’s body will hold up on the eve of his much-anticipated rematch with Tony Bellew, stressing that the former heavyweight world champion needs to be “back to his former self” if he is to stand any chance of avenging his defeat in the first fight.

Haye entered that fight as the overwhelming favourite but made a wild start and ruptured his Achilles tendon halfway through the contest. From there Bellew was able to pick him off, eventually dispatching him in the eleventh to upset the odds and win his first fight in the heavyweight division.

But Haye’s injury nightmare didn’t end there. He then suffered a freak bicep injury shortly before Christmas that caused this rematch to be delayed by several months. And Froch feels Haye’s long history of injury problems could prove his undoing in tomorrow’s fight at The O2.

“For Haye to beat Bellew he needs to be back to his former self,” Froch, the former super-middleweight world champion, told The Independent.

“He needs to be at his very best, close to 90% of what he was. The question is can he get back to that level? And will his body hold up? I don’t think that you can and, ultimately, it is only a 50-50 fight for as long as he can maintain his fitness?

“He says that he has been training very hard — training better than ever — but he said that before the first fight. And then after the loss, we found out about all of the injuries, and the treatment he was receiving just to make it into the ring.

“He’s now a similar age to when I retired and let me tell you, it’s not easy. I could feel it, things became harder. And that’s the position he now finds himself in.”

Despite Haye’s injury problems and the overarching assumption that he will be fighting through the pain barrier in some capacity on Saturday night, he enters the fight as the bookmakers' favourite.

Froch says he isn’t overly surprised with how the bookies are pricing up the fight, admitting that it can be seen as a true 50-50 contest in many respects. But he still favours Bellew to win his second outing at heavyweight level, potentially retiring 37-year-old Haye in the process.

“If I absolutely had to put money on who would win I would go for Bellew — although I do think it will be very close,” he added. “I think the fact that both have spent a lot of time outside the ring will be important, they both need to shake off a little bit of ring rust.

There is no love lost between the two fighters (PA)

“Many people have this as a 50-50 fight and I have been saying that I don’t want to pick a winner, but you have to make Bellew the favourite. I know with the bookmakers he goes into this as the underdog but that is because they don’t want to make him the favourite — they don’t want to give him the credit.

“But maybe Haye is past his best.”

If Bellew does prevail, talk will no doubt turn to his future in the heavyweight division. His trainer, Dave Coldwell, recently told The Independent that Bellew could enjoy a lucrative future in boxing’s blue-riband division, although Froch believes the reigning world champions remain out of his reach.

Froch does however think that Bellew could prove more than a match for two of the most popular boxers in the business — lineal king Tyson Fury and WBC silver champion Dillian Whyte.

“Bellew did really well in that first fight and proved that he can mix it at heavyweight,” Froch added.

“He did well from the very first bell and that was something you could see at the end of the first round. He sat down on his stool and said to Dave Coldwell: ‘Haye is slow and I can see him coming.’ So I really think Bellew is the better boxer and he has shown that he can do it at this level.

“Where does he go after this fight? He can do well at heavyweight but he has to pick the right opponents.. He cannot compete against the likes of Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder — but he knows that.

“Maybe Fury though, that is a fight which would sell very well. And maybe even Whyte. Both of those fights would generate a lot of interest. But the other guys are just too big for him.”

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