By Scott Gilfoid: After two years out of the ring, 34-year-old heavyweight David Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) will be launching his long awaited comeback in 2015. Haye suffered a really bad shoulder injury in 2013 that resulted in him needing a five hour operation to have the problem repaired.
Initially it was though that Haye’s career was over. However, he’s been able to rehab the injury and he says his shoulder is strong enough for him to return to action. Just how strong is the real question?
If the shoulder doesn’t hold up then you can pretty much right Haye off, because he’s getting up there in age and he can’t afford to burn up another year rehabbing his shoulder. Haye has been out of the ring since 2012 when he beat fellow Brit Dereck Chisora.
“The shoulder is fixed. I’m punching harder than before because of the rehab,” Haye said to the Dailystar.co.uk. “Trust me, 2015 is the return of ‘The Hayemaker’. I will be starting from the bottom. I’m not even in the rankings after being out for over a year, so I want to work my way up the rankings.”
Haye sounds like he’s going to start with some fodder opposition and then try and work his way up from there. My guess is Haye starts with fodder and stays with fodder until one of the sanctioning bodies gives him a #1 ranking. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Haye gets ranked #1 by the end of 2015 even if he faces nothing but 3rd tier opposition.
Haye wants a rematch against champion Wladimir Klitschko, who beat him easily in 2011. I don’t know why Haye wants to fight Klitschko again because it was so one-sided the last time he fought him.
Obviously the money is an attraction for Haye, because he’d make big bank from the British pay-per-view. Haye’s fans would come out of the woodwork and gladly pay to see him fight Wladimir again, even though the outcome would likely be the same as last time with Haye getting beaten easily by the 6’6” Wladimir.
Haye would be much better off targeting the winner of the January 17th fight between WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne and Deontay Wilder. Haye likely wouldn’t get a fight against either of them right away, but it would be something he could work his way up to.
I personally see Deontay as being a bad match-up for Haye style-wise due to Deontay’s hand speed, power and size being too much for Haye. But if Haye is made to wait by Wladimir until he picks up a number one ranking, then he’d be better off looking to face the Stiverne-Wilder winner rather than waiting a year or more to get ranked high enough to become Wladimir’s mandatory challenger.
Heck, Haye may never get to the point where he’s Wladimir’s mandatory challenger if he has to face someone good like Alexander Povetkin in order to get to that position. That’s why Haye is better off looking to face the Stiverne vs. Wilder winner.
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