By Chris Williams: David Haye’s blockbuster fight with IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko remains in doubt at this point, although there is still a faint hope that the fight can be made. But if the bout doesn’t go ahead, just who in the heavyweight division is Haye capable of beating besides Monte Barrett? Unless he plays it safely, there’s a fair amount of heavyweights that could very well knock him out if he foolishly decides to fight them.
Right off the bat, I see heavyweights like Vitali Klitschko, Samuel Peter, Alexander Dimitrenko, Alexander Povetkin, Ruslan Chagaev, Chris Arreola, Juan Carlos Gomez, DaVarryl Williamson, Lamon Brewster, John Ruiz, Kevin Johnson, and Odlanier Solis as probably too good and too strong for Haye to deal with. Indeed, I think most of them with the exception of Johnson and Gomez, would knock Haye out if they were to fight.
Johnson and Gomez don’t hit hard enough to break an egg, but both have excellent jabs, are very skilled, have a good chin, and too good of boxing skills for Haye to have a chance at beating them. If I was Haye, I would avoid fighting these guys unless I absolutely had to.
Haye’s simply too small and tender of chin to beat quality fighters like them. Strangely enough, Haye stands a better chance of beating Wladimir than he does any of these fighters because of Wladimir’s chin problems. And the weird part is, Wladimir would have no problem beating these guys, yet be in grave danger against Haye because of his big punch.
Below are fighters I feel that Haye has a better than average chance of winning against. That’s not to say that he would, but he’d have a good chance against them because they’re not quite as talented as the above top heavyweights.
1. Kali Meehan
2. Shane Cameron
3. Alex Mazikin
4. Taras Bidenko
5. James Toney
6. Hasim Rahman
7. Denis Boystov
8. Carl David Drumond
9. Evander Holyfield
10. Oleg Maskaev
11. Cedric Boswell
12. Michael Grant
13. Sinan Samil Sam
14. Nikolay Valuev
15. Vladimir Virchis
16. Brian Minto
17. Ray Austin
18. Gonzalo Omar Basile
19. Jameel McCline
20. Matt Skelton
21. Eddie Chambers
That’s not a bad list of fighters. Haye should be proud, because those guys are decent fighters, but very beatable if you have a shred of talent. These are the fighters that I would match Haye up against if the fight with Wladimir doesn’t pan out. Haye is too flawed to put him in against the 1st tier heavyweights that I included in 2nd paragraph, and I wouldn’t want to put him in with any of them and risk seeing him knocked out and losing the chance of a title shot against Vitali.
I say put Haye in with a couple of them and wait out his title for a fight with Vitali. Once Vitali destroys Gomez, then go after Vitali with much more less demands than in the Wladimir fight, and hopefully if things work out smoothly with negotiations, then Haye will have his big money fight with Vitali.
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