By Scott Gilfoid: There doesn’t appear to be any movement for the fight between heavyweight David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) and 44-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs (60-6-1, 53 Kos). Briggs fought last May against Emilio Ezequel Zarate on the undercard of Haye’s fight against Arnold Gjergjaj with what some boxing fans thought was an understanding that he would get a fight against Haye later this year in September.
Well, here we are in September and Briggs still doesn’t have a fight date against the 35-year-old Haye, and it remains to be seen whether he ever will. So the question is did Briggs fight on Haye’s undercard for nothing?
Just where Briggs goes if he can’t get a fight against Haye is anyone’s guess. Briggs seems to have put his career in a stall recently while waiting for a fight against Haye. He’ll need to get into the ring against somebody. Briggs’ management needs to do the heavy lifting to get him some fights, because he’s up there in age. If the fight against Haye isn’t going to happen, then Briggs can’t just around doing nothing.
If Haye doesn’t fight Briggs, then it’ll be interesting to see who he does wind up facing. This week, World Boxing Association president Gilberto Mendoza said that he would like to see Haye back as the WBA’s heavyweight champion again, and he says that he’ll be receiving another title shot opportunity in 2017. Haye would be fighting the winner of the Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne vs. Fres Oquendo fight for the WBA “regular” heavyweight title.
“We would love to have David Haye back as our champion. That’s what I can tell you, but boxing is complicated,” said Mendoza to skysports.com. “David Haye would receive a title opportunity. I don’t know if in 2016, but perhaps at the beginning of 2017.”
Why isn’t Mendoza saying that Haye should fight interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis Ortiz to earn the fight for a world title shot against the winner of the Lucas Browne vs. Fres Oquendo fight?
Haye has fought exactly two times since coming back from a near-four year layoff from 2012-2016. Haye’s two fights in his comeback have come against fringe level contenders named Mark De Mori and Gjergjaj. If Haye is able to get a title shot off of those wins after years out of the ring, it’s a pretty sad statement about the sport if you ask me. If this was the NFL, it would be the equivalent of an expansion team beating a couple of cellar dwellers and then getting to go straight to the Super Bowl off of those wins. I think the WBA is making it too easy for Haye. I’m just saying. Heck, even if Haye were to fight Briggs and beat him, I still don’t see that as enough for him to be getting a world title shot. Briggs is pretty around the same level as Gjergjaj and De Mori in my view. Haye should have to at least beat interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis Ortiz for him to get a title shot. That’s the guy that should be getting a title shot against the winner of the Brown-Oquendo fight.