By Chris Williams: In looking at a worse case scenario of David Haye somehow defeating Wladimir Klitschko on June 20th to capture the IBF and WBO heavyweight titles, I’m wondering what kind of heavyweight champion Haye would turn out to be? Haye has a legion of followers who see him as a risk taker, a fighter who’s unafraid to fight anyone. I don’t things like that. In looking over Haye’s record while fighting as a cruiserweight, I see a lot of fluff in there, opponents that were nothing more than fodder to pad his record with.
I can excuse a few low quality opponents every once in awhile, just as long as it doesn’t get out of control. However, I see mostly easy marks until Haye stepped it up and fought Jean Marc Mormeck and Enzo Maccarinelli. Other than that, it’s all easy stuff for Haye. Now, when Haye moved to the heavyweight division, he gave us a good glimpse of the kind of heavyweight champion he would be by taking on Tomasz Bonin and Monte Barrett, both B level fighters.
If Haye was a true risk taker like many people like to attribute to him, he would have stepped up to the plate and immediately fought a good heavyweight like Alexander Dimitrenko, Alexander Povetkin, Chris Arreola or a decent one like Kevin Johnson.
Haye didn’t do it. Instead, Haye opted for the safe, easy fights against Barrett and Bonin, both of whom he defeated. So, if we want to have a good idea of what kind of heavyweight champion would be, all we have to look at is his two prior heavyweight bouts before landing a fight with Wladimir, as well as most of Haye’s career as a cruiserweight.
Haye will probably be the same kind of fighter he was in the past, and will seek out the opponents that he sees as beatable. I see Haye as a Felix Sturm type heavyweight champion, taking on the easiest non-mandatory challenger he can get. Instead of seeing him being a big risk taker like his fans seem to think he is, he’ll likely go the soft route, take the easy fights and try to hold onto the heavyweight title for as long as he possibly can.
I’m usually always right about by observations about fighters and I see Haye as being the safety first type heavyweight champion. Wladimir Klitschko takes a lot of heat for fighting timidly, and rightly so because he does sometimes, but Wladimir has been good about taking on the best opponent possible, even when fighting his non-mandatory challengers. I can’t see Haye doing that.
Usually, when a fighters that talk a lot are the worse ones when it comes to fighting the best in the division. Haye talks loudly, yet when it came to picking his two earlier opponents at heavyweight, Haye gave us a good indication of what kind of champion he would be if he’s able to defeat Wladimir.
I’m now hoping that Wladimir sends Haye into stratosphere with a punch, and keep us from having to deal with him as champion. Boxing needs real warriors to keep the sport healthy, not someone that sits on a title and takes the easy fights.
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