By Jamie Fairclough: Being a fan of David “The Hayemaker” Haye is a difficult and frustrating thing sometimes. A very exciting fighter with dynamite in both fists, an enigmatic talker who sometimes goes too far with the trash talk before playing it cool on fight night such as his 12 round points loss to Wladimir Klitschko, after promising so much, and vowing to be aggressive and knock out the big Ukrainian and then being very cautious.
Yes, a broken toe would be inhibiting as when your trying to land an overhand right at the same time as your lead foot and get pain for it before you possibly getting tagged for your troubles. But fighters have fought with broken hands and much worse so the excuse was a touch on the pathetic side.
After scheduling a fight against the confident but limited Manuel Charr and pulling out with an injury, things looked well when the Tyson Fury bout was announced, as I was supremely confident that Fury wouldn’t make it past the second round possibly even the first. Because Fury was nailed by an overhand right by the light punching Steve Cunningham, it made you think what would Haye’s right hand do to fury, who has a massive heart but its hard to get up when your unconscious.
Then Haye envisioned lining up a title shot against either Wladimir or the aging Vitali after dispatching fury, alas the fury fight has been permanently postponed with fury’s camp vowing to never negotiate with Haye again if he returns to the ring.
So this leaves the question what now for Haye after major shoulder surgery? Well, if he follows advice of the doctors once he has trained a bit and see’s if the power is still there and wont cause permanent damage, and retires then he has still achieved a lot as an undisputed cruiserweight champion and WBA heavyweight world champion with a solid win/loss record.
If and it’s a big if at this point and he can box on, he will have to work his way through some lower class opponents before considering taking on a top class fighter. However, it rules out him ever fighting Vitali as he has maybe one fight left in him and it won’t be Haye, Wladimir may be slightly more venerable to the power Haye used to possess and hopefully will regain.
If Wladimir has retired as well by that time things will be easier as there are few heavyweights out there who can handle Haye’s power, of the current heavyweight contenders with a genuine chance, only the heavily untested Deontay wilder has the speed to live with Haye, and as footage from Haye’s camp before the fury fight showed wilder was wobbled multiple times by Haye.
Haye has often gone in for criticism from many fight fans, but he is a very dangerous fighter and is genuinely Britain’s on world class heavyweight. However, for now it’s the waiting game to see if he can come back from this injury or whether his career is now consigned to the history books.
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