By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) reportedly has zero interest in Manuel Charr in Haye’s next fight on June 29th at the Manchester Arena in the UK. Instead, the word is from the Telegraph that Haye wants to fight unbeaten and untested Andrew Wawrzyk (27-0, 13 KO’s).
This is a nice safe pick for Haye to keep him from getting beaten again. As I mentioned previously, I don’t expect Haye to fight anyone good in the top 15 before he gets a title shot because that’s not been his pattern. He took the safe path to get his title against Nikolay Valuev, and now it looks like he’s taking the safe path again against the 25-year-old Wawrzyk.
Wawrzyk is ranked #7 WBA and #14 WBC. However, given that he’s not faced anyone in the top tier before, I think a better ranking would be for him to be buried in the 2nd tier because getting ranked should involve facing quality opposition and looking good. The best opponents that Wawrzyk has faced thus far are journeyman Robert Hawkins and Denis Bakhtov and he didn’t look good against one of them.
Haye wants a tall heavyweight contender to get him ready for another crack at IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Wawrzyk is 6’5” and is almost the same height as him, but that’s the only comparison you can make between the two of them. Wawrzyk doesn’t move well, doesn’t have good power, and doesn’t have a great jab like Wladimir. Wawrzyk reminds me a heck of a lot like a weak version of Alexander Dimitrenko.
I expect Haye to knock Wawrzyk out in the 1st round if he presses the issue. Wawrzyk has a bad habit of covering up like a sparring partner when his opponents come after him and he doesn’t throw punches back until his opponents stop throwing punches. He doesn’t clinch, he doesn’t try to throw counter shots and he doesn’t look to move away. He just stands and covers up.
It’s really odd because you’d think this bad habit would have been fixed ages ago but it hasn’t. Once Wawrzyk covers up in front of Haye like that, I see Haye knocking him out in the 1st round.
If Haye’s idea is to use this fight to try and improve to beat Wladimir, then this is not going to help because Wawrzyk doesn’t fight like a 1st tier fighter. He fights like a mid-range 2nd tier guy in my estimation and the fact that he’s ranked in the top 10 is more of a reflection on the sanctioning body that has him ranked than it does his ability.
If Haye is just looking to get a payday fight against Wladimir and then retiring again then it doesn’t matter who Haye fights. He can fight Wawrzyk and then pick out another safe heavyweight fringe contender to fight to pad his record and become Wladimir’s mandatory challenger because it won’t matter.
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