Promoter Eddie Hearn has commented on some scaremongering reports that Haye might have to pull out of the fight through a mysterious achilles injury, although the Matchroom boss was having none of it on Wednesday afternoon.
“If he didn’t fight he couldn’t step in a British ring again. The public workouts are (Wednesday). If he wasn’t fighting I’d know. He will be at the workouts and he will be in the ring on Saturday,” Hearn said according to The Guardian.
“I’d heard about an achilles (injury) a few weeks back but he was playing football on Soccer AM at the weekend. If you’re that worried about an achilles injury you’re not playing football, are you?”
Haye, 36, flew to Germany for a last minute consultation with his doctor in Munich on Tuesday, although Hearn believes the trip is nothing for Bellew to worry about.
“It’s known he sometimes goes to Munich for treatment. That’s where he had surgery on his shoulder,” pointed out Hearn.
Previous fights with Tyson Fury and Manuel Charr were called off at the last minute before Haye took a long hiatus from boxing, although opponent Bellew says the former world champion is unable to pull out due to his reputation.
“He can’t pull out. He knows if he pulls out, he is a coward,” Bellew told talkSPORT.
“I have got in his mind but, ultimately, it is not going to matter what I say. All that matters is this Saturday night.
“If he was fighting anybody else but me, I really think he would postpone it.
“If he was fighting Shannon Briggs, Anthony Joshua, Wladimir Klitschko, any big, dangerous heavyweights, I believe he would postpone it. But because he is facing little old fat Tony Bellew, I think he believes he is going to walk through me and make it a real easy night. But, believe you me, he is in for a nasty, nasty shock.”
