By Scott Gilfoid: If and when IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua faces Wladimir Klitschko, he’s going to “easily” beat him, according to former WBA belt holder David Haye, who failed in his own attempt at defeating Klitschko five years ago in July 2011. Haye blamed his loss to Wladimir on a toe problem.
The reality was that Haye just wasn’t good enough. Haye believes that the 26-year-old Joshua will have no problems defeating the now 40-year-old Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs). Haye sees Wladimir as having aged and lost a significant part of his game.
Haye thinks that Klitschko will be disqualified for holding if there’s a good referee working the fight between him and Joshua. Haye’s goal/dream for making a comeback is to fight Joshua next summer at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It’s unclear whether Haye will disappear for four years after that fight like he did after getting big paydays against Wladimir and Dereck Chisora. Haye hasn’t exactly the busiest of fighters since he started making the big bucks. In the last six years, Haye has fought only five times. That’s not too busy, is it?
Haye said to skysports.com about the proposed Joshua-Klitschko fight:
“Joshua wins that fight very easily. I really believe that is the case. I’ve seen how Klitschko has been declining in recent years. In his last fight against Fury, he looked the worst I’ve ever seen him and averaged around twelve punches a round. All Joshua needs is a fair referee, because if they have one then Klitschko will be disqualified for holding. The Ukrainian will be desperate to get close to AJ, so that Joshua can’t let his hands go. Referees in the past have let him get away with it.”
I think it’s pretty obvious that Wladimir has declined since his win over Kubrat Pulev in 2014. I’m not sure why Wladimir is still fighting at this point, because his last two performances against Tyson Fury and Bryant Jennings showed pretty clearly that he no longer has it. What’s even sadder though is that as depleted as Wladimir is, he would still likely whip Haye without problems whatsoever.
Haye is a small heavyweight, and he just doesn’t belong in the ring with the larger guys, even the faded big guys like Klitschko in my opinion. I don’t expect Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn to require that Haye help build their fight up for next year by insisting that he takes on a big quality heavyweight like Luis Ortiz, Kubrat Pulev, Joseph Parker or Bermane Stiverne. I think Hearn and Joshua will be just fine with Haye continuing to pad his record with wins over horribly over-matched fighters like Mark De Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj instead of telling him he’s got to help make the fight look at least semi-credible by taking on Ortiz, Parker, Stiverne or Pulev. I don’t see Haye getting anywhere near those guys.
“A unification fight with Joshua at Wembley in the summer would be massive and it doesn’t get much better than that,” said Haye.
Haye will be fighting on December 10, supposedly against someone that will make the boxing public happy. It’s thought that Haye will fighting 44-year-old Shannon Briggs. That opponent isn’t going to make me happy. Haye needs to be fighting better opposition already. If Haye is blabbering about him and Joshua fighting next year, then he needs to do is fair share by helping build up that fight, because fighting Briggs, De Mori and Gjergjai is pathetic. It just comes across like Haye is only coming back to get a big payday fight against Joshua before disappearing back into the woodwork once again.
Haye’s entire comeback just looks fake in my opinion, like he’s just there for the Joshua money, and then he’ll disappear until he needs to go to the bank again by coming back to fight whoever is the top heavyweight at the time. The thing is, Haye could make so much more money if he helped build the Joshua fight up by taking some risky opponents. Fighting Briggs is a joke. That fight isn’t going to prove anything for Haye in terms of convincing the boxing public that he’s for real as a heavyweight contender.
Haye needs to take on Luis Ortiz and show that he can beat him. I think it’s safe to say that Haye is going to get nowhere near Ortiz in this lifetime. That’s too bad. If Hearn and Joshua told Haye what the condition it is for him to get a fight against him by taking on and beating Ortiz, then we could either weed Haye out of the picture or build him up as a viable opponent. If Joshua fights Haye in the summer of next year after he beats up 44-year-old Briggs, I think the Joshua-Haye fight won’t bring in anywhere near the amount of boxing fans that it would if Haye had helped build the fight up proper by taking on the likes of Luis Ortiz and beating him to prove he deserve a title shot.