By Edward Chaykovsky

David Haye was sitting ringside at the Echo Arena in Liverpool and watched his close friend BJ Flores get knocked out in three rounds by WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew. 

Bellew (28-2-1, 18KOs) was making the first defense of the title he captured back in May in Goodison Park with a brutal third round knockout of Ilunga Makabu.

He showed no mercy on Flores - by landing damaging punches that saw three knockdowns in the second round and then a fourth to close the show in the third.

After the contest was over, he called for a fight with Haye (28-2, 26KOs). He did the same thing back in May, but this time Haye was at ringside and Bellew made attempts to physically confront him. He was restrained by his camp members and security.

Bellew has long claimed that he, along with Olympic bronze medal winner David Price, busted up Haye so bad in a sparring session that it caused him to withdraw from a scheduled fight. The alleged incident took place several years ago when Bellew was still an amateur.

Haye, a former unified cruiserweight champion, has been fighting in the heavyweight division since 2008. He captured the WBA heavyweight title in 2009 with a win over 7-foot giant Nikolai Valuev.

Haye, who picked Flores to beat Bellew, admits his rival is better than he thought he was - but he believes a fight with Bellew will be a complete mismatch at heavyweight.

"He's definitely better than I thought he was. I thought BJ would have too much fire power for him. Obviously he took some big shots from BJ, he dished them back out - but I'm a different animal, I'm a former heavyweight champion. I'm the hardest pound-for-pound puncher on the planet and he would get destroyed, real easy, real quick," Haye explained to IFL TV.

"I spoke to the people here, Adam Smith [of Sky Sports] and [Bellew's promoter] Eddie [Hearn], and they say me and Bellew is a pay-per-view fight - so that's closer to happening than me and Shannon Briggs.

"Stylistically I really think its a walk in the park. He has some stick for me about knocking down my last opponent with a jab. I'm confident that I would knock him out with a jab. I will go out of my way to [drill] him with a jab. I'm that confident. At cruiserweight, he's one of the best fighters in the world - no doubt about it. At heavyweight, it's a whole different story. A different type of skill set is required, a different type of toughness, a different type of power - and I don't believe he has those [skills]. Plan and simple."

"He's right that we're not that much different in size, but Mike Tyson was actually smaller than him and that doesn't mean he could beat Mike Tyson. Same thing with me. I punch so much harder, I'm so much quicker, my defense is much better, punch variety is better - every angle, chin's better, everything is better."