David Haye vs Tony Bellew: Hayemaker says he plans on playing a cat and mouse style fight with Scouse boxer and will knock him into retirement

DAVID HAYE plans on playing cat and mouse with Tony Bellew when the heavyweights clash on Saturday.

The former two weight world champion is confident he will not only stop Bellew but punch his rival into retirement.

Haye insisted: “When will I stop him? It depends what I feel like when I’m standing in the ring - if I throw punches with any intent early it’s the first round.

“If I have a look at him, hit him with a few jabs to the body and ease into the fight it’s the second round. I might do the old and cat and mouse routine, where a cat has a mouse in its mouth but then lets it in off and catches it back.

Keep up to date with ALL the BOXING news and gossip, plus match-ups, results and live fight commentary

“The whole time the cat is in complete control and can eat the mouse when he wants, but it’s just to play with him, to punish him.

“I don’t have to wait for the chance to win, I make my chance. I set traps and put him in a position he doesn’t understand.

“The only thing he will realise is when he’s waking up in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. It sounds dramatic and harsh but I don’t see it going any other way.

“I’m hoping it goes late, that he’s better than ever and his defence is great, that he’s slipping punches and counter punching. But if he does anything remotely like he has in career it will be pretty brutal and pretty fast.”

Haye believes Bellew will join a list of fighters who have never boxed again after losing to the Londoner and he added:

“I can guarantee he’s going to be retiring this year. He won’t be boxing after March 4, no way. He will have to stop.

“John Ruiz didn’t box again after I stopped him and neither did Mark de Mori or Nikolay Valuev.

“There are a lot of fighters who when I fight them they stay hit forever and never fight again. He will be on that list of people I’ve sent into retirement.”

The bitter fighters will at last trade punches instead of insults when the first bell sounds at London’s 02 with threats and abusive taunts plummeting to a new low after Bellew questioned Haye’s ability as a father.

Haye spent Christmas in Miami training for this fight while his young son stayed in London with his mum but he warned: “Everything I do effectively is for my family, so I don’t really pay much attention to it.

“If I was him, I wouldn’t have spent Christmas with my family. I would’ve gone somewhere and locked myself away from the comfort of my home.

“A solid training camp away from loved ones is the way to get the best out of yourself. Different things work for different people and for me this has worked great.

“I don’t know what he is like as a dad and he doesn’t know what I’m like as a dad. He can make his assumptions.

“But the facts remain, Bellew has put himself in a very, very dangerous position and I hope that if he does care for his family like he says he does, he does not invite them to the fight.

“And he should make sure he does not let them watch the fight on TV. it will be quite sad to witness what I’m going to do to their dad and husband.

“He’s definitely lit a fire under me in terms of making sure that this will be the most spectacular knockout of all of my fights. I’m not worried about body shots or jabbing.

“I’m looking at putting a combination together that really hurts him, a Tommy Morrison-Ray Mercer finish where his brain hasn’t even told his legs to fall down and I’m still hitting him as he’s upright.

“I’m looking at doing a real number on him, before the referee can even stop the fight landing three or four vicious haymakers on him.”

Haye, 36, agreess he will be finished as a boxer if he loses to Bellew and admitted: “Lose and there’s nowhere for me to go.

“He definitely has somewhere to go other than the hospital because he can go back down a division and if he’s allowed to have a licence after this fight he can go back to defend his world cruiserweight title.

“But if I was to somehow miraculously lose this fight then my ambitions of becoming a world champion will be 100 per cent gone.

“And yes, I’d love to fight Anthony Joshua for the world title this year!”