By Gav Duthie: David Haye 29-2 (27) made light work of the overhyped and overmatched Mark De Mori 30-2-2 (26) on Saturday to get his name back in the heavyweight scene. After such a long lay off the division has changed completely since his last outing against Derrick Chisora in July 2012. This in turn raises more questions than answers regarding Hayes place in heavyweight boxing. Where should he go next and how does he fair against the current heavyweight champions.
The Facts
After David’s win on Saturday he has been immediately reinstated at #9 in the WBA rankings the very same position as Mark De Mori had. De Mori was clever as an opponent as he was a soft touch but Haye would have also made sure he beat a ranked opponent. All the belts are currently tied up within the WBA right now at present.
WBA Super – Tyson Fury
WBA Regular – Ruslan Chagaev
WBA International – Luis Ortiz
Haye has already stated that Fury is against to fighting him and he has confirmed he will rematch Wladimir Klitschko. Ruslan Chagaev 34-2-1(21) is facing mandatory Lucas Browne 23-0(20) on March 5 and International champion Luis Ortiz 24-0(21) has been mandated to defend against Russian born Alexander Ustinov 33-1(24).
The Big Fights
Anthony Joshua 15-0(15)
This fight is obviously huge in the UK. Despite Joshua’s inexperience it is probably already a stadium fight due to both athletes popularity. The other carrot for Haye is that fighting AJ is also productive in terms of finance and rankings. Joshua is surprisingly rated as high as #2 with both the WBC and WBO. A high WBC ranking could set up a future fight between David Haye and Deontay Wilder.
Most Likely Option
He won’t fight Tyson Fury even for 100 million said the 6″9 champion. IBF champion Charles Martin seems unlikely as he has no ranking there and the International Boxing Federation are sticklers for there mandatory obligations. I think he will end up fighting for his old championship against Ruslan Chagaev. I expect the Uzbek to defeat Lucas Browne and he would be mad not to choose Haye as his next voluntary. Chagaev is 37 now and despite being a two time heavyweight champ hasn’t had a lot of huge paydays and his massively underrated as many don’t have him as a top ten heavyweight. A win over Haye would certainly rectify that.
David knows he doesn’t have time to waste and if he doesn’t get a fight with Jpshua I think he will still fight for a title before the year end.
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