The 33 year-old did what was promised, although didn’t have to weather an early storm as predicted.
Haye, 36, looked a shell of his former self as the Londoner failed to ignite from the off and whimpered his way to a third loss from 31 bouts.
Take nothing away from ‘The Bomber’ though as Bellew did what was necessary to take Haye into deep enough waters before coach Shane McGuigan threw in the towel to end his misery.
The first four rounds were something of a cat and mouse game but Haye’s predicted onslaught never came and Bellew had a far easier night than expected. Winning the first two sessions on the WBN scorecard, Bellew started brightly before conceding a couple of rounds and then completely taking over.
Looking spent from the fourth onwards, Haye was dropped in the sixth after shipping an unheard of amount of punishment as Bellew piled on the pressure.
An injury to his achilles hampered Haye down the stretch, whilst Bellew was nursing a broken hand from the third round onwards.
It didn’t stop a flurry in the eleventh from Bellew that sent Haye through the ropes and there was no way back for the now faded former world ruler.
Talk of a rematch in the post-fight interviews didn’t go down too well as the fight was largely one-sided with Haye looking old and bereft of ideas. A second fight would probably go the same way if they did it again at any point in the future.
