Tony Bellew, no stranger to Hollywood, ripped up the David Haye script he had always considered a sham, and belted the former world heavyweight champion into unwilling submission less than four minutes from the end of a fight that will occupy highlights reels for years to come.

There was no title at stake, but a lot of money and bags of pride after the two fighters had swapped increasingly tedious insults as well as the odd handbag for five months. That Haye was crippled for the last half of the fight only enhanced the drama – and, of course, they embraced at the end, the winner generous in his praise of an opponent he had affected to despise in pursuit of pay-per-view sales as much as gaining any psychological advantage.

“I wanted to really beat him and he really wanted to beat me,” Bellew said, glowing like a man who had proved the entire world wrong. “He’s a brilliant boxer. Who wants to see it again?”

There was a slim consensus for a rematch among the crowd, but it surely makes sense. This was a strong contender for fight of the year.

David Haye gracious in defeat but must realise his time is up | Kevin Mitchell Read more

Haye sneaked into the London Arena in Docklands 17 years ago without a ticket to watch Lennox Lewis knock out the South African Frans Botha, and left this grander venue with considerably more than the price of admission in his bank account, probably £4m of the roughly £7m pot left from the estimated maximum revenue of £13.5m. But he did not get the result.

Victory might have earned him a payday approaching £10m with Anthony Joshua – who was ringside on Saturday – but that hope is as shredded as the right achilles tendon that appeared to give up on Haye when he slipped on a wet patch of canvas during a wild exchange in the sixth round.

Bellew remains the owner of the WBC cruiserweight title and will boil down to 14 stone to make a second defence of that belt after a suitable rest. He has earned it. It is unlikely, however, that he will risk fighting the much bigger Joshua – or Wladimir Klitschko if the Ukrainian beats the Londoner next month.

Old-style family man Bellew – who still enters the ring to the nostalgic Z Cars theme tune – was determined to bring down the playboy Londoner, who prepared on a Miami yacht and saunters through his sport like a film star. A quietly thudding irony played in the background, though: Bellew, Scouse to his fingertips, has starred in a Hollywood film, as Pretty Ricky Conlan in the Rocky spin-off, Creed, in 2015; Haye, who once boxed at the Playboy mansion, never did realise his dream of cracking the film capital of the world.

All that was forgotten in the heat of an enthralling battle. From the opening bell, Haye, who had had only eight rounds of competitive boxing in five years, stalked and swung with vicious intent but curious impatience. Did he trust his stamina? Was he desperate for an early night? Certainly there seemed little wrong with his suspect achilles at this point, or the old shoulder injury that kept him out of the ring for two years. Bellew, nearly a stone lighter and no body-beautiful, picked his sculpted rival off on the counter, and broke out of his back-pedalling shell to land some telling head shots in the second.

The Evertonian’s dodging and dipping served him well until the fourth, when Haye dazed him mid-ring with four good swipes to the head, but he did not follow up. Bellew’s corner had to work on a cut over his left eye as the contest drifted towards halfway without a defining moment.

And then it exploded. Drawn into a bar-room brawl after mistakenly thinking he had his man hurt, Haye lost his cool and his footing three times – the last one for a count – and limped back to his corner at the end of the sixth round, the injury now a genuine hindrance to his every movement.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Haye looks dazed after being knocked out of the ring in the 11th round. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Reuters

Emboldened by the sight of his stricken prey, Bellew poured it on when they resumed, landing one crunching blow after the other as Haye sought refuge on the ropes. Haye was shot to pieces and gasping for air, but Bellew could not find the finisher. Again, Haye staggered drunkenly to his stool.

His right ankle heavily strapped, Haye showed tremendous fortitude to even remain standing after giving up two 10-8 rounds and a good portion of his senses. Wounded and exhausted, he must have dreaded the next assault but Bellew, curiously, granted him respite. Husbanding what little was left of his resources, Haye broke briefly into life in the ninth but his cause looked doomed. Now Bellew was the stalker. Showing discretion that has not always been part of his repertoire in the past, he took a low blow – and gave one back in the 10th.

Derided for complaining about a bruised toe when outpointed by Klitschko, Haye was surviving now on one leg, unable to push off on his right foot, and the more knowledgable fans recognised that. But when Bellew barrelled him through the ropes untidily in the penultimate round Haye beat the count but his trainer, Shane McGuigan, threw in the towel to save his man. Haye was later taken to hospital for a precautionary examination of his injury.

There will be far worse losers.

On a varied undercard, Katie Taylor, in her third professional bout after a long amateur career garlanded in medals and unstinting praise, is still in six-rounders and was way too good for the 39-year-old Italian Monica Gentili, who did not go so gentle into that good night, floored and stopped in the fifth. It was Taylor’s second stoppage win, and she looks well settled in the paid ranks, buoyed again by a good reception from a largely blokeish constituency steadily warming to the 30-year-old Irish boxer.

David Haye v Tony Bellew: heavyweight boxing – live! Read more

Earlier, freewheeling Yorkshire heavyweight David Allen – not quite as funny as the late Irish comic, but he tries – proved there was more to him than the sock he pushed down his shorts at the weigh-in when he knocked out Sheffield’s David Howe in the second round of six. Allen, who improved to 11-2-1, joined the bulging Matchroom roster recently, probably as a spare, but a couple of good wins and he could be in the mix for some sort of title.

The world super-featherweight champion Lee Selby, treading water between defences, looked sharp pounding out a ninth-round stoppage of the Spanish trier Andoni Gago. The Welshman is always a joy to watch, but he might need a bit more pop in those quick fists to prosper at the highest level.

The sweet science took a back seat when the former WBA lightweight champion Derry Mathews challenged the flashy Londoner Ohara Davies for his WBC light-welterweight belt and was decked three times before the referee rescued him in the third. There probably aren’t many working options for the 33-year-old Liverpudlian, who has had a grand 51-fight career spread over 14 years. Davies, unbeaten now in 15 bouts, should make inroads from here.

Paulie Malignaggi, a very former world champion who operates better behind a microphone these days and has a considerable UK fanbase, needed every ounce of his skills to stay clear of Sam Eggington’s heavier and younger fists but could not rise from a body shot in the eighth of 12.