By Chris Williams: It seems that David Haye isn’t going to be getting back in the ring anytime soon regardless of whether his back heals up in the next month and is looking at getting back in the ring in September to hopefully fight for one of the heavyweight titles against either of the Klitschko brothers.
Right now, Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion, is the one on Haye’s radar screen. A fight against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko might have to wait for Wladimir to get in one more title defense of his WBO belt before giving Haye a shot.
Haye says that the television companies won’t want to show any fights in July or August, which is his reasons for wanting to wait until September until he fights again. It just so happens that time falls in line when Vitali or Wladimir might have time free to give Haye a shot at the title.
Haye might end up wasting his time, though, because Vitali may be forced to defend his WBC title against Oleg Maskaev, and Wladimir probably won’t be fighting that early since it will only be three months after his fight with Ruslan Chagaev, which takes place on June 20th. That was the date that Haye was supposed to be fighting Wladimir, but he had to pull out last week after injuring his back.
The news that Haye likely won’t be fighting until September will no doubt be disappointing for his fans, who had hoped that Haye would stay busy by fighting a top contender in July as soon as his back healed. By waiting around until September, it will look like Haye is only intent on fighting for a title and not willing to risk facing a tough challenger.
That move might end up wasting time for Haye if Vitali and Wladimir are unwilling are unable to fight him in September. However, if the British television networks are really not showing boxing for all of July and August like Haye says, then he may not have much choice but to wait.
It sounds a little strange that British television wouldn’t be showing boxing during the summer months, because that seems like the best time to show the sport on television you would think. If that’s the case, Haye should start looking at some alternatives to fight the Klitschko brothers just in case things don’t work out right for him. Haye would do well to look for a good top contender to fight so that he can give the heavyweight division a good indication of how talented he is while the world waits on Vitali or Wladimir to get freed up.
Just hanging around and waiting for the Klitschkos to get free seems a little desperate from my perspective. If Haye really wanted to create interest from the Klitschkos and the boxing world, he could do no wrong then to prove he’s a top fighter in the division by beating at least one good heavyweight before then.
Up until now, Haye is resting entirely on what he accomplished as a cruiserweight and has fought no one of note as a heavyweight. It would be good if Haye proved that he can do more than talk.