Tony Bellew's net worth soared thanks to huge purses from David Haye fights
Tony Bellew's two wins against bitter rival David Haye gave him financial security after a decade of mediocre paydays.
Bellew and Haye first fought in March 2017, but they came to blows months before they stepped foot in the ring at a fiery press conference in which Haye punched his rival. Bellew had the last laugh in a fight that was largely overshadowed by Haye rupturing his achilles, with the former two-weight world champion managing to fight on for several rounds before he was stopped in the 11th.
Just over a year on and the two were back in the ring again, with history repeating itself but this time sooner as Bellew knocked out Haye inside six rounds. Haye hung up his gloves after the back-to-back defeats whilst Bellew also retired after being beaten by Oleksandr Usyk in his next fight - and the Scouser revealed just how important his bouts with Haye were for his career.
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"That one fight was four times my whole career combined in one night. The next time I fought him again, I doubled it again, then I fought Usyk for the last one, I doubled it again. I was very fortunate. Me and David get on these days. I’ve fought David twice and beaten him twice, but he’s a far better fighter than me," Bellew said on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
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Bellew made a reported £2.8million for his first fight against Haye, which notched up around 775,000 pay-per-view buys. 'The Bomber' pocketed a similar payday for their rematch that sold slightly more buys than their first meeting. Bellew said that his wife Rachael Roberts had advised him to retire just a year prior to fighting Haye, but he couldn't do so because of financial reasons.
"We were in the kitchen and my missus said, ‘That it now then, that’s you done?’ I believe that a man should go out and provide for his family, probably everyone doesn’t agree with this or like it anymore," Bellew added. "I go out and work and I try to give them the best I can. She said, ‘What do you mean?’
"I said, ‘We’re so far away from financial security.’ We were basically f***ing skint."I had a big, heavy, heavy mortgage. I shouldn’t say skint, but I was living on fight to fight. I wasn’t comfortable. I defended my world title and I made okay money." Bellew ended his career with an impressive record of 30-3-1, his most notable wins coming against Ilunga Makabu, BJ Flores and Haye.
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