Former heavyweight and cruiserweight champion David Haye suffers shock defeat to Liverpool’s Tony Bellew.

It was expected going into the fight that Haye would end the contest within the allotted time, but boy, did that script get ripped up tonight.

All throughout the build-up Haye insisted that Bellew was not anywhere near his class both in his boxing ability or as pertaining to his physical talent as an athlete.

Months upon months of trash talk and back and forth verbal abuse between both men led to a highly anticipated fight tonight in London tonight at the O2 Arena.

Whether or not it deserved to really be a pay per view event is another question.

Round 1 surprised a lot of people in that Bellew more than held his own, landing an early left hook that sent Haye back. Bellew boxed on the back foot for most of the round and kept his distance from Haye.

The second continued in a similar vein, with Bellew using footwork and making Haye box on the front foot for a change.

Nothing major landed by either man.

Bellew continued to do a good job of frustrating Haye in the 3rd, who couldn’t seem to figure out the Liverpool man – boxing on the back foot and frustrating him.

Haye landed in the fourth round with a solid right hand on Bellew, who took it well to his credit. A Haye round on pushing the pace and shots landed for me, followed by an uneventful round 5.

The 6th and the 7th rounds showed incredible scenes that shocked everyone however, as Haye appeared to be carrying an injury and Bellew nearly stopped him on a number of occasions – with Haye ending up on the floor more than once.

The 8th round was one where both men’s depreciated gas tanks became evident.

Haye’s ankle appeared to be injured badly but Bellew was blowing hard in the round, too tired to stop him despite Haye been virtually incapacitated.

Haye mustered up some strength in the 9th and landed a combo on Bellew but followed it up with a low blow which caused a brief break in the action.

The Londoner despite the injury showed he was still dangerous in spurts in round 10 and 11, but Bellew had him on the ropes and dropped him in the 11th – dumping him through the ropes!

That prompted the towel to be thrown in here:

David Haye vs Tony Bellew #HayeBellew Knocked out of the Ring and in goes the Towel! pic.twitter.com/4wzerBGhPe

— Fancy Combat (@FancyCombat) March 4, 2017