Haye to fight on June 29th in UK, five unbeaten opponents being looked at

By Boxing News - 03/28/2013 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s announced in his London press conference today that he will be back in the ring on June 29th in a comeback of sorts at the Manchester Arena against one of five potential unbeaten non-British heavyweights, according to his manager/trainer Adam Booth.

Haye hasn’t fought since beating domestic level heavyweight Dereck Chisora last July in a 5th round blowout in the UK.

It’s hard to really call this a comeback when Haye has only been out of boxing for less than a year. Haye fighting once a year is kind of the norm for him, and yes it’s a definite waste of his career to be that inactive, but that’s on him.

In the press conference Haye complained about the Klitschkos not being interested in voluntarily fighting him, so instead of waiting for them to pick him out, he’s decided to fight to highly ranked contenders to become the mandatory for one of the klitschkos. {read: Wladimir}.

Haye said “I’ve been waiting for phone to ring from Team Klitschko, but it hasn’t. Their path doesn’t include me this year. Instead of sitting around and waiting, I want to get back in there. People want me back and they’ll be able to see me on June 29th. I’m a couple of fights away from that mandatory position; whether the Klitschkos fight me after that we’ll see.”

It’s too bad it took Haye two years to get a clue that the Klitschkos aren’t going to fight him. Heck, Haye could have already gotten another title shot against one of them had he remained active after losing to Wladimir in 2011. Talk about your dumb moves.

There’s a lesson to be learned in there, isn’t there? By just sitting around flapping your gums instead of getting of your backside actually working, you’re not going to get anything except a fight with 2nd tier fighter Chisora. What a sad, sad waste.

As for as who Haye will be fighting on June 29th, Booth said “There’s five [perspective opponents] I’m talking to right now; all of them ranked in the top 15, all of them unbeaten.”

That doesn’t tell you jack. There’s a ton of unbeaten fluff heavyweights ranked in the top 15 at the current time, and most of them are absolutely terrible. Haye says he wants an opponent that won’t be defensive and will let him put on a good show. Haye said “It’ll be someone ideally that will gel with my style. I don’t want someone that’s defensive, afraid to throw punches.”

Well, that pretty much excludes all of the unbeaten top 15 contenders except for the talented Deontay Wilder and Magomed Abdusalamov. Would Booth pick out either of them to fight Haye on June 29th? Are you kidding? Not in a million years. That would be like putting Haye back in with Wladimir. I mean.

Abduslamov is a beatable guy, but he can punch and I can’t see him getting hand-picked to fight Haye because he’s a little bit too exciting. And no way will Booth let the 6’7” Wilder in the ring with Haye because he’d have too much of a chance of knocking him out in the first two rounds, and ending Haye’s dream of a Klitschko rematch.

Wilder would jump at the chance to fight Haye, to be sure, and he’ll definitely be available to take the fight after he makes short work of Audley Harrison on April 27th on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs. Julio Diaz card in the UK.

It’s likely going to be some heavyweight with limited talent and a fluff resume that Haye ends up facing. Booth isn’t going to risk the 214 lb. Haye against a big unbeaten heavyweight with incredible power like Wilder. It’s going to be interesting to see who gets picked out for this fight. It should be good for a laugh or two.



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