Former heavyweight champion of the world David Haye punches Bellew at their first press conference today in the UK!
These two don’t like each other, we all knew that. But in all honesty, what ensued at today’s press conference took everyone a bit off guard.
When David Haye and Tony Bellew came head to head for the first time in the face off for the cameras things literallt kicked off.
Bellew can be seen walking straight up to Haye here and going head to head with him, before pushing him which prompted Haye to fire off a lead left hook:
Haye punches Bellew! Hat tip and credit IFL YouTube:
It is not quite clear yet what will happen as a result of the above, in terms of if either man will face disciplinary procedures from the British Boxing Board of Control and so forth.
It has certainly made this pay per view heavyweight fight that much bigger now ahead of March 4th next year.
It marks the first time in some while that a fighter actually threw a punch at another at a press conference. Certainly the first occasion in a while I can recall.
No love lost between @mrdavidhaye and @TonyBellew today at the presser #boxing pic.twitter.com/4peZeQp6rK
— Butterfly Boxing (@Butterfly_Boxin) November 30, 2016
Usually these types of situations are well controlled but putting two highly charged heavyweight boxers together in a scenario like this is almost like waving a rag in front of a bull.
You could see from the amount of security above that they probably did expect at least some pushing. But the speed at which Haye was able to get off his punch probably took everyone by surprise.
The shouts from one of the security guards above echoed this panic I thought:
“David don’t touch the boxer! There is no need for that!”
Bellew’s early verbal onslaught against Haye has certainly gotten under the Londoner’s skin.
As the weeks and months go on in this one it will be interesting to see what else these two guys have to say about one another.