By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, recently spurned heavyweight hopeful David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) is reportedly interested in a match against former heavyweight champion Ray Mercer (36-7-1, 7 KOs). However, the problem is Mercer, now 47, isn’t ranked in the top 15 by the WBO, which would throw out the window Haye’s promise of fighting a top 10 fighter in his next fight in November. But, you can be sure that this problem will be rectified soon despite the fact that Mercer has lost three out of his last nine fights and hasn’t beaten a top fighter in ages.

Haye had previously hoped to fight unbeaten JD Chapman, but he backed out of a fight with him, leaving Haye without an opponent for his November 15th fight at the O2 arena. Chapman, a fighter with an impressive (29-0, 26 KOs), would have been perfect for Haye because of Chapman’s 6’5″ size, which would almost match perfectly the size of IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Haye urgently craves a fight with Klitschko to validate his career and instantly make a name for Haye, even though he’s only fought once previously as a heavyweight.

If Haye is looking in the direction of Mercer, it would seem to suggest a note of desperation on the part of Haye, because he has previously turned down top fighters like Monte Barrett, claiming that he wasn’t the type of name that would bring a lot of people to the arena to see him fight. With Mercer, who is even older and not ranked anywhere near the top 15, Haye must be utterly frantic in his search for a big-named opponent. There’s nothing wrong with Mercer other than his age. I think a prime Mercer would make easy work of Haye, to be honest.

Mercer would have taken any of the big shots that Haye would throw at him and then take him out with a series of combinations much in the same way that Mercer took out Tommy Morrison in a 5th round stoppage in 1991. If Mercer could take the big shots of a fighter like Lennox Lewis in his prime, he’d easily handle a few rough rounds with Haye. Mercer would just wait him out like he did Morrison, stand in with Haye until he punched himself out around the 5th or 6th, and then beat him up and take him out.

At one time, Mercer held the WBO heavyweight title for a brief spell in 1991. However, Mercer gave up the title shortly after defeating Morrison in October 1991. It’s hard to imagine that with as much talent as Mercer had, he never did recapture a heavyweight title. He attempted to regain the WBO heavyweight title against then champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2002, but was riddled to pieces by the young Klitschko, who worked Mercer over badly in a vicious beating that was eventually stopped in the 6th round with Mercer bloody and battered against the ropes.

One would hope that Haye would chose someone a little more youthful than Mercer, perhaps someone like Tony Thompson, Kevin Johnson or Monte Barrett. If they’re considered too dangerous, then perhaps Haye needs to make an adjustment in his previous statements of wanting to fight a top fighter and instead say he wants to fight a beatable fighter. There’s nothing wrong with telling it straight to the public, because they’ll probably understand and may actually sympathize with him. After all, he’s got a potential title fight against Wladimir Klitschko coming up in 2009 and he doesn’t want to mess that up by facing a good fighter like Thompson, and likely losing the fight.

The drawback for Haye, though, is that by facing a crummy fighter like he’s likely to do, he’ll be in for a rude awakening when he fights Wladimir, easily the best heavyweight on the planet at this time. There’s no amount of journeyman fighters and sparring partners that will be able to get the smallish former cruiserweight Haye prepared for that kind of challenge.