By Sean McDaniel: Although World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) has defended his choice of picking 39-year-old fringe contender Audley Harrison (27-5, 20 KO’s) for his recent fight last weekend, it seems to have caused a lot of negative feelings for not only Harrison for the way that he looked timid and passive, throwing only punch in the entire fight but it’s also caused a lot of fans to take a negative look at Haye as well. It’s a fight that didn’t help boxing any because a lot of casual boxing fans paid to see this fight, and many of them came away feeling angry and ripped off for having paid to watch it.

Haye takes criticism because he hand selected Harrison, a fighter that had proven repeatedly in his career that he couldn’t even beat decent 2nd tier heavyweights like Martin Rogan, Dominick Guinn and also lost to guys like Michael Sprott and Danny Williams. Based on Harrison’s performances against these kinds of fighters and his advanced age, Haye should have known better. It was a recipe for disaster. It’s one thing going out and blowing out a top contender and/or champion caliber fighter, but whole different thing to hand pick a 2nd tier heavyweight like Harrison and take him out.

Fans would have respected Haye had he destroyed someone that had the right credentials and who had come to fight, but the opponent that Haye dug up for his bout last Saturday night. That was a big mistake on Haye’s part, because it made him and Harrison look like they had conned fans and given them a bad bill of goods. If you’re going to make boxing fans pay to see a fight, it’s wise to pick the best fighter possible if you want to win over fans and not them away permanently.

Perhaps Haye misjudged how boxing fans would see this. Haye might have thought that they wouldn’t care if they wasted money on seeing him blow out a badly over-matched fighter like Harrison and wouldn’t complain about it. But after having fought 38-year-old John Ruiz before this fight, 36-year-old Nikolay Valuev in the fight before that and then finally 38-year-old Monte Barrett in the fight before that, Haye really needed to have taken on a much higher quality fighter by this time to win over fans. 39-year-old Harrison wasn’t what the doctor ordered.

In hindsight, it was a bad decision on Haye’s part, and now he’s getting a lot of negative feedback because of it. Haye might be able to quiet some of the fans if he turns around and fights one of the Klitschko brothers next, but few people believe Haye will do that. It’s likely that Haye will choose to fight Ruslan Chagaev, his mandatory challenger next, and continue to milk his WBA title against older heavyweights who are little threat to him.