Haye: Joshua should fight Deontay now

By Boxing News - 07/18/2016 - Comments

Image: Haye: Joshua should fight Deontay now

By Scott Gilfoid: Britain’s David Haye thinks this would be the perfect time for IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) to face unbeaten WBC heavyweight champ Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) with him coming off a bad biceps and hand injury to his right hand. The 6’7” Wilder broke his right hand and suffered a torn bicep in his 8th round knockout victory over Chris Arreola (36-5-1, 31 KOs) last Saturday night at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.

The injuries will both require surgery to repair, and it’s quite possible that Wilder won’t be back inside the ring until the first quarter of 2017. Coming back from surgery on a torn biceps can take as long as six months. For an athlete that needs strong biceps, it’s going to be especially important for Wilder to be 100 percent when he does return to the ring in the future.

Deontay can’t fight the top guys with his right arm at 60% of normal, because his left hand isn’t good enough for him to dominate the way he needs to. I mean, Wilder was able to dominate the limited 35-year-old Arreola with just his left hand last Saturday night, but he’s more of a fringe contender/2nd tier fighter than a true top contender at this point in his career.

“Now he knows Wilder’s got one arm, there’s no better time. If Joshua gets the opportunity to fight a Wilder, now knowing he’s got a damaged hand is the perfect time,” said Haye to skysports.com. “The one threat that Wilder has is that right hand. It really is his key punch. His left hook is good, his jab is nice but his right hand is his biggest weapon.”

Oh my, Haye wants Joshua to take advantage of the injured Deontay. How sporting. Instead of Joshua looking to fight Wilder when he’s at his best so that he can get full credit for a win, Haye wants Joshua to fight Deontay when he’s not at his best. Where’s the victory in that? How do you live with yourself when you beat someone that you know isn’t at their best.

Haye might think that’s just fine and dandy, but I wonder what Joshua will think? Will he now start banging the drum for a Deontay fight in 2016 or will he show class and say he doesn’t want to fight him until he’s absolutely sure that he’s 100 percent? I’d like to think that Joshua will wait until Deontay is fully recovered from his surgery and his arm at full strength before fighting him, but you never know. I think its Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn that makes the fights for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALzE-eG7PIM

If Hearn turns his radar sights towards the wounded Deontay, he might think it’s the right time for him to pick him off and get the WBC belt the easy way. It would be one of those survival of the fittest type moves. The weak and lame get picked off by the healthy young lions.

I hate to drizzle on Haye and Joshua’s parade, but Deontay has good management guiding his career and there’s no way that he’s going to be matched up against anyone remotely good until his right hand and bicep is 100 percent. I don’t care how much money Hearn waves under Deontay’s snoot to lure him in the ring, I don’t see the fight happening until Deontay is 100 percent recovered from his injuries. We might be talking about the 2nd half of 2017 or maybe 2018 if Joshua doesn’t get picked off by his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Joseph Parker before that time.

“Fighting the guys Wilder is talking about, he’s going to need 100 per cent confidence in throwing it because when you’re fighting the elite fighters, you may only get one chance to throw your knockout punch. People’s defences are very good,” said Haye.

This was the third time that Wilder has suffered a broken right hand since turning pro in 2008. Wilder needs to figure out the best way he can avoid suffering this injury in the future. It might be that he needs to throw his right hands in a particular way as to avoid putting as much stress on his hand.

It’s also possible that Deontay might need to limit the amount of times he uses his right hand in his fights. Instead of throwing his right hands 20 to 30 times per round, maybe he should focus on throwing 10 right hand bombs per round. That might be enough for him to still win while avoiding injury.

The 35-year-old Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) is supposed to be fighting 44-year-old Shannon Briggs next. The fight could take place in September or later. I have no idea why the fight isn’t already negotiated and scheduled, because it should be a done deal already. Haye needs to get this fight out of the way so that he can finally start fighting the high quality contenders like Luis Ortiz, Kubrat Pulev and Carlos Takam. Honestly, I’m not holding my breath waiting for any of those fights to ever happen.

I see Haye taking the backdoor method of getting a world title shot by fighting weak opposition until he’s either given a title shot through a voluntary defense by one of the champions like Tyson Fury or Anthony Joshua, or by him getting a No.1 ranking by one of the sanctioning bodies. I don’t see why any of the sanctioning bodies would ever give Haye a No.1 ranking based off the kinds of wins he’s been accumulating lately, but this is boxing. We see that kind of thing all the time. This isn’t like other sports where you need to beat the top teams to get the top spot. In this sport, you can get the No1 position much of the time by facing weak 2nd tier fighters. It’s kind of sad actually because there’s no real achievement with that method, and you get too many guys that aren’t talented enough to be fighting for a world titles. These fighters would normally be weeded out if they had to fight their way to a title shot, but that doesn’t happen much of the time because the sanctioning bodies often don’t force them to fight the good fighters.