By Michael Lieberman: I’ve always considered myself to be a shrewd judge of boxing talent, and that’s why I see both Juan Carlos Gomez (44-2, 35 KOs) and Tony Thompson (32-2, 20 KOs) as being better heavyweights than David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs). I realize that many British boxing fans probably don’t know who Gomez or Thompson is, since they’ve been somewhat sheltered in the UK away from outside fighters. But rest assured, I see Thompson and Gomez both as more sound fighters with better boxing skills than Haye can ever hope to have.
Gomez, 35, recently gave Vitali Klitschko and competitive fight, holding his own until the 9th round when Vitali put him away with some fine left hooks to the head. Up until that time, Gomez was giving Vitali some headaches by foiling his attacks. Haye probably would have not lasted more than three or four rounds at best against Vitali before falling to pieces under Vitali’s big shots.
Beyond the Vitali fight, Gomez has fought much better competition than Haye has at heavyweight, with wins over top ranked Vladimir Virchis, Oliver McCall, and Denis Bakhtov. More than that, Gomez was the better cruiserweight than Haye, holding the WBC cruiserweight title for three years and defending it 10 times successfully before moving up to the heavyweight division to ply his trade there.
If Gomez hadn’t moved up to heavyweight, I would bet that he’d still be the WBC champion right now and would have likely beaten both Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli along with it.
While Haye has beaten Tomaz Bonin and Monte Barrett at heavyweight, Haye didn’t look good in winning the Barrett fight and appeared to get hurt in the 5th round by a left from Barrett.
As for Thompson, 6’5”, he has wins over Luan Krasnigi, Timor Ibgagimov and Dominck Guinn. Thompson may have been stopped in the 11th round by Wladimir Klitschko in 2008, but Thompson gave Wladimir a lot of problems, bloodying his right eye and landing more punches against him than any other fighter that’s been in the ring with Wladimir during his pro career. Most recently, Thompson looked great in stopping Adnan Serin in the 5th round in March 2009.
Haye, instead of fighting Wladimir, he should be earning his shot against him by fighting good heavyweights like Thompson and Gomez. I’ve already shown that both of them have superior records and have fought the better competition in their career at heavyweight, and in the case of Gomez, at cruiserweight as well.
Haye has done little aside from the brief time that he held the cruiserweight titles with wins over Jean Marc Mormeck and Maccarinelli. Haye never stuck around long enough to prove that he was the best against the other cruiserweights in the division like Tomasz Adamek and Steve Cunningham.
I’d rate Haye in the top 15, but closer to the bottom position rather than in the top five. He would have problems against heavyweights like Thompson and Gomez, both of who use their reach, have a good chin and have excellent boxing skills. Haye would be forced to fight a whole different type of fight when he finds himself unable to knock them out. In a fight without a knockout, I see Haye losing badly because of his lack of jab and problems with movement.
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