David Haye Wants JD Chapman? What Happened To Haye’s Top Opponent?

By Boxing News - 09/16/2008 - Comments

haye456345734.jpgBy Michael Lieberman: After months of hearing David Haye spout off at the mouth downgrading heavyweights as a whole, saying that he would come in and clean up the division, that he would be taking on a good top 10 fighters, we find out that he has chosen none other than unbeaten JD Chapman (29-0, 26 KOs) as the fighter he’d like to get in the ring with for his next fight on November 18th. This is a complete joke. I have nothing against Chapman, but come on, the guy has fought absolutely no one and probably doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near the top 10 in the heavyweight division.

Thankfully, Chapman looks as if he’ll save us from watching this farce of a fight, because he reportedly pulled out of the Haye fight. However, it looks as if he’ll still probably be the one that Haye fights according to Setanta Sports, in which Golden Boy Promotions Chief executive officer Richard Schaefer still feels that they’ll be able to bring Chapman back into a bout with Haye. The thought of watching Haye fight someone with an inflated record like Chapman’s is more than a little off-putting, because Haye will no doubt be hyping him and his unbeaten record, and likely try to suggest that he’s a credible opponent.

After all this time, it’s sickening to see the fighters that Haye chose not to fight. He could have easily have chosen good fighters like James Toney, Hasim Rahman, Chris Arreola, Monte Barrett, Andrew Golota, Kevin Johnson, Alexander Dimitrenko, Eddie Chambers, Tony Thompson or Travis Walker, to name just a few. Instead, however, we see him looking at a fighter who has fought no one notable names in the heavyweight division. In fact, the only names that I can recognize on Chapman’s resume are journeyman fighters, that’s it.

And Haye wants to fight him? What a complete joke. I’ve lost whatever little respect that I ever had for him after this. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if he hadn’t been talking about wanting to fight a top fighter in his next fight, and I suppose that Chapman, whose ranked #7 in the WBO, #9 in the WBA and #13th in the WBC, technically is a top fighter, but for me he’s not anywhere close to being a top fighter. Those rankings are ludicrous, because he’s fought no one to deserve such a high ranking.

Although I can’t says I’m surprised that Chapman should be ranked so highly without having fought any top heavyweights, because Haye’s in the exact same boat as him, ranked #3 in the WBO and #5 in the WBC despite having fought only once in his entire career as a heavyweight. In truth, both Haye and Chapman should be fighting it out not in the top 10, but in second or third tier of heavyweights, ones that have still yet to cut their teeth on top level talent. The top tier should be reserved for fighters that have proven themselves against other top class fighters, not against journeyman or cruiserweights.

I’m not surprised that Haye chose not to fight Kevin Johnson, because he’d lose to him without a doubt. Johnson has better stamina, a much better jab and a better chin than Haye, and has actually fought at heavyweight against good fighters. If Haye had taken that bout, he might as well have given on his dream of fighting Wladimir Klitschko, because Johnson would have exposed Haye in front of the entire world. It would have been much worse than the beating Carl Thompson gave Haye four years again.



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