By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight David Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) will be letting the boxing public know about his comeback plans this Tuesday on 11/24, when he meets with the press at the O2 Arena. Haye has been out of the ring for ages now since his last fight three years ago, and it’s hard to believe he’s finally coming back after all this time to resume his stalled career.
There’s talk of him wanting to fight for a world title against the talented WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. I can’t see that happening unless Wilder and his adviser Al Haymon choose to just let the 35-year-old Haye get a title shot without him having proven that his body can make it through a training camp without falling apart with some kind of injury or another.
Haye will likely take on one of the weaker UK heavyweight journeyman level heavyweights for his first fight back. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s someone like Martin Rogan, Matt Skelton, or Matt Legg. The type of guys that Anthony Joshua has padded his record with in his two years as a pro. But regardless of who it is, Haye has proven to be so brittle when it comes to his body, I just have doubts that he’s going to be able to make it through training camp in one piece if there’s sparring involved.
I wouldn’t advise Haye to do any more sparring for the remainder of his career. He needs to follow the Sergio Martinez plan by not sparring at all. If Martinez was able to do it, then Haye should be able to do it as well.
Let’s be honest here; Haye’s next opponent is probably going to be someone from the 3rd tier that he can be without any trouble. I have no problem with that. You can’t throw a guy that has been out of the ring for three years in with a 1st tier guy, because that would be asking for trouble. But the problem is that Haye has been out of the ring for such a long time, and I just don’t think he’s going to be able to come back from that long of a layoff and be the same fighter that he was before he stopped fighting.
Haye, 6’3”, 210lbs, doesn’t have the size to compete with the bigger heavyweights in the division in my view. I see him as another Eddie Chambers, Tomasz Adamek and Steve Cunningham type heavyweight. Haye gets a lot of attention to himself because of him being vocal, and having a lot of the media in the UK willing to interview him. Other than that, I don’t see him as being any better than the above mentioned smaller heavyweights.
I don’t know what Haye is going to do in order to get himself back to title contention. It’s going to be next to impossible in my opinion for Haye to get another crack at a title, because he’s going to need to stay injury free for a couple of years for him to get ranked high enough for the likes of Wladimir Klitschko and Wilder to want to bother fighting him again. The first injury that Haye gets will slow the process down to the point where it could take him forever to get another title fight.
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