Wilder’s promoter rules out David Haye as option for July

By Boxing News - 05/28/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder won’t be facing 35-year-old David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) for his next fight in July. According to Deontay’s promoter Lou Dibella, it’s too short notice for a fight between Wilder and Haye.

Dibella wants an opponent that can fight Deontay in the next eight weeks, and a fight against Haye wouldn’t be a rush job type of fight. They would want more time to build the fight properly. However, Dibella says a fight between Deontay and Haye is definitely something they’re interested in for 2017.

Dibella spoke of potentially matching Wilder against unbeaten #15 WBC Gerald Washington (17-0-1, 11 KOs). It would be an interesting fight, as the 6’7” Washington is the same height as Deontay, and he’s coming off an impressive eight round unanimous decision win over former world title challenger Eddie Chambers on April 30 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

“David is likely, in the next year, to fight for a heavyweight title – I just don’t think it’s happening in the next eight weeks,” said Dibella to skysports.com. “I don’t see him as a potential opponent in a fight that’s being thrown together in this situation.”
It makes sense for Deontay to face someone else next rather than Haye because they would be shortchanging him and the fight itself if they rushed it. Dibella notes that Haye has fought two week opponents since he made his comeback earlier this year.

“The quality of his recent competition hasn’t been very good,” said Dibella about Haye’s last two fights against fringe contenders Mark De Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj. “I saw his last fight which was difficult to watch.”

Well, if Dibella is hoping that Haye will start facing quality opposition sooner or later, I think he shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for that to happen. Instead of facing a talent contender in his next fight, Haye will be fighting 44-year-old Shannon Briggs. I mean, I can kind of see how this is going to go with Haye. He’s likely going to continue to face fodder opposition all the way up until he gets a big payday fight against IBF champion Anthony Joshua. I then see Haye disappearing from the sport for four or five years until he needs to come back for some more money.

What Dibella doesn’t seem to understand is that even if he offered the fight to Haye against Wilder, I don’t think he would consider it even for a fraction of a second. Haye won’t take that risk of fighting Deontay in my view, because the risk involved in that fight would be HUGE. Think about it.

If Deontay knocks Haye out cold, then he could forget about his cash out payday fight against Joshua. I guess the fight could still take place with Haye coming off a knockout loss, but I don’t see it being a big money fight like it would be if he can keep winning up until he faces Joshua.

Former two-time world title challenger Chris Arreola has been mentioned recently as the most likely opponent that Deontay will be facing in July. I’m not sure if that’s going to be the case now that Dibella is floating Washington’s name as a potential opponent for Deontay. But then again, Dibella could be doing that so that he can drive down the asking price from Arreola.

If Arreola knows that he’s not the only game in town for Deontay, then he might not ask for as much money as he would if he thought he was his only option for his next fight.
“[Washington] is certainly the type of the guy that would be on the list – he’s rated, he’s an American, he’s a big guy with an undefeated record. It’s not certain to be Gerald,” said Dibella about Washington.

I think Washington is the much tougher option for Wilder compared to Arreola because he’s got the height and reach to hit Deontay with his shots. Deontay would need to come out blazing against Washington in order to get him out of there quickly to limit the amount of shots he gets hit with. Arreola is shorter, and not as dangerous for Deontay due to his limited reach. Don’t get me wrong; Arreola is a very dangerous heavyweight capable of knocking out anyone in the division. But with Arreola, he’s not going to be able to reach Wilder with his shots unless he can walk him down and get inside his punching range so that he can land his big shots. Washington can stay on the outside all night long and trade with Deontay. Washington likes to throw jabs to take advantage of his height and reach. I think Deontay would need to hit him with a big right hand to take him out quickly so that he doesn’t get confident.