Hearn: Haye needs to fight Dillian Whyte

By Boxing News - 05/26/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn believes that former two division world champion David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) is getting further away from a big money fight against his fighter IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) rather than heading towards the fight.

Hearn believes that the poor level of opposition that Haye has been facing lately is hurting his chances for him to get the big money match against the 6’6” Joshua in the future. Hearn wants to see the 35-year-old Haye step it up against a better clash of heavyweight such as Dillian Whyte (16-1, 13 KOs).

This opponent would be a HUGE step up in class for Haye from the last two gawd awful opponents he’s faced in his comeback. Whyte would at least have a chance of beating Haye if his surgically repaired left shoulder was at 100 percent.

A healthy Whyte would be a 50-50 fight against Haye, which is probably why Whyte won’t get the fight with him. It looks to me like Haye is going to face fodder right up until he gets his payday match against Joshua. I don’t think amount of advice from Hearn is going to get Haye to fight the likes of Whyte or any heavyweight that has a chance of beating him. Heck, Shannon Briggs would be a major step up in class for Haye at this point.

Hearn isn’t in favor of Haye fighting 44-year-old Briggs in his next fight in September because he sees that fight as basically no improvement over Haye’s previous mismatches against Mark De Mori and Arnold “The Cobra” Gjergjaj. Those two fringe contenders were Haye’s last two opponents since he started his comeback earlier this year in January.

Hearn not surprisingly wants to see Haye fight quality opposition because the better clash of opponent he faces, the bigger his fight against Joshua will be in the future.

“That tells you about the progression. The Cobra [Gjergjaj] didn’t do any favours with his nickname in the first place. I think garden worm might have been better,” said Hearn to southlondon-today. “He is bringing sub-par opponents in because that’s the budget for the opponent. It’s quite simple. The Mark de Mori fight was okay – that was a free fight. A gimme. He was a very, very average comeback fight. The Gjergjaj fight was a real disappointment because it was actually probably a step down from de Mori.”

It would be in Haye’s best interest to follow the advice that he’s being given by Hearn in taking on Whyte or some of the other dangerous heavyweights in the division. Hearn wants to make the Joshua vs. Haye fight as big as humanely possible and he can’t do that if Haye is going to be fighting exclusively fodder opposition each time he’s in the ring.

You cannot blame Haye one bit for fighting De Mori in his first fight back in his comeback, because he’d been out of the ring for four years since 2012. However, Haye’s recent mismatch against Gjergjaj was unnecessary. Haye should have looked for a better opponent than that; someone like Chris Arreola, Andy Ruiz Jr., Dillian Whyte, Dominic Breazeale, Gerald Washington, Eric Molina, Charles Martin, Johann Duhaupas, Jarrell Miller, Artur Szpilka, Bermane Stiverne, Antonio Targer, Steve Cunningham, Alexander Ustinov, Kubrat Pulev or Luis Ortiz. Haye has the name to get those type of opponents to face him.

It’s just extremely troubling that Haye isn’t looking to fight those guys. I know Haye fought generally fodder opposition after he moved up to the heavyweight division in 2008 up until he got his big payday fight against Wladimir Klitschko in 2011. I don’t think that model will work a second time for Haye. If he wants to maximixze the money that can be made for a fight against Joshua, he needs to fight a class of opponent. That means no more fringe level opposition like the ones he’s been facing lately.

“I don’t think Briggs is the fight,” said Hearn. “Dillian should be the fight he is looking at,” said Hearn. “He is not going to be able to make the big fights. With Joshua, I look at Haye as a big money fight but we’ll take him when it suits. We want the belts – we want Fury and Wilder.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2p4Qgy_ZtA

The way I see it, Joshua will destroy the over-matched Dominic Breazeale on June 25, and then either face Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder in November. If Fury wins his fight against Wladimir Klitschko on July 9, then there will be a very good chance that Fury will be facing Joshua in a unification match in November. I don’t see Fury avoiding that fight because he needs to face Joshua as soon as possible before he gets picked off by one of the other heavyweight contenders.

If Fury loses to Wladimir, then Hearn will almost surely make the talented 6’7” Deontay an offer he can’t refuse for a unification fight against Joshua in November. Deontay obviously isn’t going to turn down a huge money offer to fight Joshua because it’s a winnable fight for him due to his superior height, reach, hand speed and punching power. It would be a potentially difficult fight as well for Deontay because he’s been wobbled a few times in his last few fights, and there could be a chin issue that might spell disaster if he gets hit with a big shot by Joshua.

I think Deontay is smart enough to know that if and when he faces Joshua, he’ll need to go all out in the first few rounds to make sure he gains his respect. If Joshua is still standing after the 3rd round, then Deontay needs to start dropping right hand bombs on him to get him completely out. Deontay doesn’t need to let Joshua hang around like Whyte did.

I wish Haye would take the Dillian Whyte fight, because that would at least give the boxing world a chance to see whether Haye has the talent to fight for a world title. I just don’t see it. I think Haye is going to continue to fight only guys that he knows for sure he can whip. He’ll likely do this right up until he finally gets his cash out fight against Joshua. Once Haye gets his payday against Joshua, I then see him disappearing for another four years until he decides to comeback for another big payday fight. By that time, Haye will be pushing 40 and starting to look a little aged.