David Haye: I really want to fight Anthony Joshua

By Boxing News - 04/11/2016 - Comments

BOXINGBy Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion David Haye (27-2, 25 KOs) worked Anthony Joshua’s fight last Saturday night for Sky Sports, and Haye saw nothing in his performance against IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-1-1, 21 KOs) for him to be afraid of him. In fact, Haye is now more motivated than ever to get Joshua inside the ring so that he can knock him the spark out.

Haye knows he won’t fight in the same way that Martin did with the way he was standing straight up. Haye would actually throw punches, fast punches, and he wouldn’t be stationary like Martin.

Haye, 35, has a fight scheduled next month against Arnold Gjergjaj on May 21. If Haye wins that fight, then Haye will be facing 44-year-old Shannon Briggs in his next fight this year. Those fights likely won’t take too long if Haye can beat Briggs. It’s possible that Haye could be free to fight Joshua by November or December.

“The way I fight is completely different to Charles Martin,” said Haye to Sky Sports. “I don’t stand up in the air and my head is constantly moving. I have feints. I’d relish the opportunity to fight Joshua. I’ve never had problem with big guys like that. Wladimir Klitschko hit me on the chin and he didn’t put me down. I can’t think of a bigger fight in world boxing.”

If Haye shows too much interest in the Joshua fight, he could scare him and his promoter Eddie Hearn off. If I were Haye, I would cringe a little, and look terrified when I speak of Joshua. If he does that, then I see him as having a better chance of getting the fight. Haye is probably going to need to use reverse psychology to lure Joshua into the ring because I don’t see Haye getting the fight anytime soon with the way he’s hounding Joshua for the fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWx0QU67Ag0&nohtml5=False

Instead of hounding him, Haye needs to act like he’d not interested at all. If someone asks him if he’d like to fight Joshua, then Haye needs to go into the terrified act and play it to the hilt. I think if Haye does all that, he’ll have Hearn beating down his door to give him the fight because he’ll see him as the perfect opponent for Joshua. At the same time, Haye can’t afford to look too good in his mismatch fights against the unknown Gjergjaj and against 44-year-old Briggs. I mean, Haye is obviously going to need to exert himself against Briggs because if he plays around in that fight, he’s going to get knocked out. Briggs is like an old mine that has been buried since World War II.

The mine looks harmless and won’t go off under normal pressure. But if you trigger than mine just right, it’s going to explode like it would have 70+ years ago. Haye is going to need to do what he can to defuse Briggs without looking too good if he wants to keep Joshua and Hearn from being scared off the job.

Haye doesn’t have a lot of options for big money fights unfortunately. He just has the Joshua fight. Haye burned his bridges with Tyson Fury after suffering two injuries that wiped out fights against him. Deontay Wilder isn’t going to fight Haye because it’s not a big enough fight due to Haye having been nout of the ring for so long. Haye came back last January to beat Mark De Mori, but that was a mismatch against a guy with a completely padded record. Haye is now fighting this Gjergjaj guy.

Sadly, that’s actually a step backwards for Haye from the De Mori fight. I still do not understand the reasons for Haye taking on that guy. Did Haye strike out in attempting to lure some of the top contenders into fighting him, or did he just go combing the 2nd tier ranks for a fighter with a padded record. I think it might be that of the latter.

The thing is if Haye wants to keep improving, then he’s going to need to start taking on some real threats that could potentially beat him. I don’t see guys like Gjergjaj and Briggs being good enough to do the job against him.



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