Tony Bellew was out to prove his first win against David Haye was not a fluke and proved so in the grandest of ways.
Bellew knocked down Haye three times to ultimately stop him in the fifth round in their highly-anticipated heavyweight rematch at the O2 Arena in London, 14 months after Bellew first stopped Haye in that very same venue.
The fight started off well for Haye, who was recovering from an Achilles injury suffered midway through their first fight in 2017. Haye was the busier fighter in the first two rounds, outjabbing Bellew and looking like he's fully recovered from his injuries.
Bellew was starting to get comfortable in the third round and then landed a vicious punch that knocked down Haye with just seconds remaining in the third round. Once Haye got right back up, Bellew swarmed Haye and knocked him down again as the third round end bell sounded.
The fourth round went well for Bellew, landing the right hand to hurt Haye a number of times in the round and almost knocked him down again. Bellew got that third knockdown in the fifth round a little more than a minute into the round and once Haye barely managed to get beat the 10 count, Bellew unleashed a number of punches onto Haye who was trapped in a corner and the referee put a stop to the fight, awarding the win to Bellew.
The second fight between the two was originally supposed to take place last December, but Haye suffered an injury during a training session which delayed the rematch. The rivalry started all the way back in 2016 when there was a brief confrontation between Bellew and Haye after Bellew retained his WBC cruiserweight title against BJ Flores. Haye goaded Bellew to a grudge match and Bellew accepted, vacating his cruiserweight world title and moving up to fight in heavyweight for the first time in his professional career.
