Will Haye attempt to milk his title as long as possible?

By William Mackay: After seeing the latest news information about a potential Haye vs. Klitschko fight shot down by David Haye’s trainer/manager Adam Booth, I’m starting to having a sinking feeling that Haye might end up milking his World Boxing Association heavyweight title for as long as possible before facing one or both of the Klitschko brothers. It makes sense, right? There’s all kinds of heavyweights or want to be heavyweights that are calling Haye out, and most of them are fighters that Haye would have a good chance at beating without the risk involved with fighting.

Bernard Hopkins and James Toney are just two of the many fighters that would like to fight Haye. Either one of these fights would bring Haye a good payday without the risk involved with fighting the dangerous Klitschko brothers. For Haye, it’s like a free payday, because he would have a huge advantage over Hopkins and Toney.

These guys are naturally much smaller than Haye, not as quick and not nearly as powerful. In many ways, it would be like a Klitschko facing Haye, except in this case Haye would be Klitschko-like in comparison to Toney and Hopkins. I’m hoping that Haye doesn’t decide to milk his title for as long as he can, because I really would like to see him step up and fight Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko.

I just don’t think he will. Haye might be just mentioning the Klitschko brothers all the time knowing that it will make him look good in calling them out. It’s basically name dropping at it’s finest. By doing so, in away it elevates Haye’s name and puts it on par with the Klitschko brothers, even though Haye has done essentially zero in the ring as a heavyweight to deserve being thought of as being on par with either of the Klitschko brothers at this point in his career.

Haye beat WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev in his last fight, but didn’t look at all good in that fight. The Haye that fought in that bout would have have likely fought life and death with Kevin Johnson last week, the heavyweight who Vitali Klitschko schooled for 12 rounds in the process of beating Johnson by a one-sided 12 round decision in Berne, Switzerland. But you can see that namedropping is something that has worked for Haye, giving him credibility in a way in the absence of impressive accomplishments in the heavyweight division.

If Haye does decide to milk his WBA title, he has a long list of easy marks to fight in the WBA. Beyond his fight with John Ruiz in early 2010, Haye can waste time on fighting a rematch with 36-year-old Valuev. That should be easy fight for Haye. All he needs to do is repeat his past performance against Valuev, use a lot of foot movement once again, and the victory is Haye’s.

There’s also Ruslan Chagaev, the smallish former WBA title holder who was recently stopped in the 9th round by Wladimir Klitschko in June. I wouldn’t call this an easy fight for Haye, because Chagaev can punch a little, but it’s a lot easier than facing either of the Klitschko brothers, that’s for sure. After Chagaev, there’s Denis Boytsov, Kevin Johnson, Ray Austin, DaVarryl Williamson, Lamon Brewster, Dennis Bakhtov, Alexander Ustinov, David Rodriguez, Sebastian Koeber, Brian Minto and Odlanier Solis.

Haye could probably beat most of the fighters on that list without too many problems. Haye could, in theory, hold down his WBA title for years to come without losing by sticking to fighting these guys. Haye wouldn’t even need to fight the Klitschko brothers. If he wanted, he could fight them after he runs the table and beats most of these guys. By then, say in three or four years, the Klitschko brothers might have aged enough to the point where they would be beatable for Haye and he could then fight them.

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