By Scott Gilfoid: It’s pretty clear that the aging 35-year-old David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) wants a fight against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, but I don’t see that fight happening anytime soon. Haye is slowing up the process by not taking on quality opposition. I think he could speed up the process if he risked his hide by taking on a talent rather than the bottom feeders that he’s been facing lately.
It appears that Haye is trying the lazy man’s approach to getting a fight against Joshua by trash talking rather than fighting the high caliber fighters. I’m not sure if that old method of taking his way into a title fight will work, because you need to be able to beat good fighters to get the boxing public to believe in a certain match-up. It doesn’t help Haye that a lot of the fans still remember his poor showing in his loss to Wladimir Klitschko five years ago in 2011.
Haye didn’t look too good in his last fight against the little known contender Arnold Gjergjaj last May. It’s hard to know why the sanctioning bodies ever ranked Gjergjaj in the first place because he looked dreadful even before he fought Haye.
Haye looked like he was gassing in the Gjergjaj fight after just one round. It was sad to see, which is why it’s odd to hear Haye saying he thinks he’s better than IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. I’m not too high on Joshua, but I do rate him a heck of a lot higher than the smaller, older 6’3” Haye, who hasn’t fought a quality opponent since launching his 2-fight comeback last January.
“I have a certain skill set that I believe would trump Joshua. He has got the size and strength – I’m sure he could out deadlift me. He’s a tremendous athlete. He could probably beat me in a 100m. But this is boxing,” said Haye to skysports.com.
Haye is supposed to be fighting 44-year-old Shannon Briggs in his next fight. If Haye would upgrade his level of opposition x10, then it would give him more reasons to pump himself up in the media. I mean, I would have an easier time buying into Haye’s bragging if he would at least fight a decent heavyweight like Kubrat Pulev or Joseph Parker and prove that he can beat one or both of them, but that’s not what he’s doing. Since coming back this year, Haye has beaten Mark De Mori and Gjergjaj. All credit goes to Haye to dig those guys up from the contender ranks, but let’s be honest here; these guys probably should have never been ranked in the top 15 in the first place. The fact that Haye was able to beat them was no big deal.
“Obviously I think I’m the best,” said Haye. “It’s about skill, movement and experience. I’ve been boxing since the age of 10 and I’ve got the experience to outmaneuver someone who’s bigger than me. I’ve done it in the past. It’s easy to say that outside the ring. In the ring, it’s a lot more difficult.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2CS5Wo6zBU
Haye is right about him being able to outmaneuver his opponents in the ring, but the problem is he doesn’t let his hands go when facing better opposition. I’m talking about his fights against Wladimir and Nikolay Valuev. I’m not talking about Haye’s fights against mediocre opposition, which he’s been fighting quite frequently since he moved up to the heavyweight division many years ago.
I think Haye would help out his own cause if he started fighting the cream of the heavyweight division instead of the gawd awful fighters he’s been facing lately. Not only would it speed up the process of him getting a title shot against the 6’6” Joshua, but it would make the fight much bigger. The would equate to Haye making more money out of the fight than he would make right now if the two of them fought each other off the back of Haye’s wins over no-name fighters. There would be risk involved with Haye fighting world class contenders to earn the title shot against Joshua, but I think it would be worth it in the long run. If Haye gets whipped by one of them, then he can always go back to his backdoor method of getting a fight against Joshua by fighting mediocre opposition one after another while talking himself up in the media.