David Haye refuses to cast out beast inside despite unseemly war of words | Kevin Mitchell


Boxer embraced the victor Tony Bellew, who he had threatened to put in hospital, but still insists pre-fight tirades were real

It did not take long for the public embrace of David Haye and Tony Bellew – the televised moment that delivered what seemed to be the heartwarming conclusion to months of mutual loathing – to fade like a forgotten family photo.

By Thursday, Bellew, so generous to his rival in the glow of victory last Saturday night, was telling an Irish radio station that the pre-fight trash-talk was “all real”, adding: “The things he said to me declare that he’s an absolute scumbag. Like I said before: once a helmet, always a helmet.”

Related: Tony Bellew stops hobbling David Haye in extraordinary boxing upset

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