David Haye Could Be Out In the Cold, Bout with Valuev at Risk

By Boxing News - 08/25/2009 - Comments

haye53549By Manuel Perez: Heavyweight David Haye may find himself without an opponent on November 7th, according to the latest boxing news around the world. It seems that former two-time World Boxing Association heavyweight champion John Ruiz, the mandatory challenger to the WBA heavyweight crown, isn’t going to stand by idly and allow the WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev bypass him and fight the number #4 ranked Haye instead.

As such, the WBA is going to have to make a decision in the coming days or else risk having Ruiz press forward for possible legal action to force his case. It’s kind of odd that Valuev choose to fight Haye in the first place when Ruiz was already sitting there as the mandatory challenger waiting his turn. Valuev should have taken care of business and fought Ruiz instead.

Once Ruiz was out of the way, then Valuev could go after Haye. It isn’t as if Valuev hasn’t already beaten Ruiz, since he’s already defeated him twice in the past four years. Ruiz worked hard to get the shot at Valuev by beating Jameel McCline in the WBA title eliminator. Even though Valuev beat Ruiz later on in the year by a 12 round split decision in August 2008, Ruiz still remained ranked high in the WBA.

The WBA needs to do the right thing and not sanction the fight between Haye and Valuev. Unless, Valuev wants to give Ruiz a big step aside fee for him to wait for his title shot. Ruiz might be up for that but they need to accommodate the warrior because he’s worked his way to the top spot and deserves his title shot. It doesn’t matter that Ruiz has lost twice before to Valuev, what’s important is that Ruiz deserves his title shot because he’s the mandatory challenger for Valuev. Fair is fair. Let the man fight for the title. If Valuev is still good enough to beat him, then so be it. If not, Ruiz will be the new champion. But you can’t just skip over Ruiz and take a fight with Haye.

If the WBA forces Valuev to fight Ruiz, it leaves Haye in a bad position. He’s already backed out of fights against both Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko for title shots. Haye would find himself missing out on a third world title in the past year. I can’t believe it. Oh well. Haye would still be plenty young enough for the Valuev-Ruiz business to get ironed out and then Haye could always fight the winner.

I kind of doubt that Haye would be welcomed back as an opponent for either of the Klitschko brothers at this point because he appears to have temporarily burned his bridges with them. Haye could stay busy in the meantime against someone like Tyson Fury or Brian Minto until Valuev and Ruiz work out their differences in the ring. It’s like bad karma though for Haye, isn’t it? But it might be a good thing in the end. Haye could fight someone else and get some more visibility before he fights Ruiz or Valuev. That can’t be bad for Haye.



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