By Matt Stein: Boxing took a huge hit yesterday when Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) gave the crushing news that he will be retiring from the sport. However, now there’s a huge vacuum that needs be filled to take the place of the “Golden Boy.” Who better to take De La Hoya’s place then British heavyweight David Haye? Okay, so what if Haye isn’t American, doesn’t have an Olympic Gold Medal, and doesn’t have the same crossover appeal that De La Hoya possessed. At least Haye hasn’t been knocked out in the past year.
Of course, Haye is a little rough around the edges as far as his personality is concerned, with a tendency to be loud at times, and often more than a little boastful of his intentions. Haye may be the opposite of everything that De La Hoya is as far as being quiet and humble, but I think Haye is malleable and can be molded into another De La Hoya-type star in time.
De La Hoya obviously has a big head start on Haye, since the Golden Boy started his career in 1992 and had already won titles in six different weight classes by time that Haye won his first cruiserweight title. All Haye needs to do is stick around for awhile, beat both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko and then clean up the division and he’s there.
How hard can that be? It doesn’t matter that Haye is from Britain and fights most of his bouts over there, he can still become a huge star in the U.S. In fact, that’s where he should be positioned if he was thinking clearly. Why go for the small time when you can expand into the U.S. and get the big cash.
I imagine even if Wladimir turns around and plants Haye into the first row seating on June 20th, Haye can still become a future star in the heavyweight division. First of all, he’s made the right decision in fighting Wladimir, because in doing this Haye will be guaranteed to fight either of the Klitschko brothers if he can defeat Wladimir.
Haye would then have to beat Wladimir in a rematch, and then his brother Vitali. Doesn’t sound that hard, does it? The best part of it is that Haye won’t be fighting a 2nd rate fighter or journeyman heavyweight and screwing up his image by making people get the impression that he’s taking easy fights.
Really, he’ll have no choice to take three consecutive difficult fights if he’s able to beat Wladimir. But, at the end of the tunnel should he be able to beat Wladimir and Vitali, Haye could very be the next De La Hoya. And the best part of all is that he won’t have to fight nearly as many fights for him to achieve this.
All Haye needs to do is win three fights against the Klitschko brothers, and he can possibly be boxing’s biggest star and another De La Hoya. But if Haye is knocked out badly by Wladimir, then I’m afraid the British star will remain what he is today – a local star only.
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