By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight David Haye looks to be a little misguided about his perceptions about American boxing fans when it comes to himself. Haye seems to think that he’s well liked in the United States by boxing fans for some reason. I’m curious as to what has given Haye that impression because as far as I can tell, Haye is pretty much loathed by American fans of the sport. Haye had this to say to The Londoner told Press Association Sport:

“The Americans have taken to me, they like my attitude and what I did at cruiserweight, cleaning up the division really quickly and causing a bit of excitement and hype in the heavyweights.” I hate to break this to Haye, but I think he may be dreaming a wee bit. I think I speak for a lot of Americans when I say that Haye is pretty well disliked at this point. Why you ask? The reasons are simple. Haye had a chance to fight the Klitschko brothers, both of them, and after teasing both of them to no end, Haye backed out of the fights and moved in another direction. With all the teasing that Haye did, American fans expected Haye to back it up in the ring and when he didn’t do that, many of them saw Haye as a afraid.

It’s hard not to reach that conclusion when Haye found some reason not to fight Vitali Klitschko after saying that he couldn’t fight Wladimir Klitschko on June 20th because of a mysterious back ailment. Haye isn’t popular in America, let me say that right now. I never hear his name on television or the radio. When I do see Haye’s name in American boxing internet forums, it’s usually something negative.

Haye might be getting some positive press right now, but that’s only because he’s fighting WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, one of the dullest heavyweight champions in recent memory. A lot of boxing fans, Americans included, are hoping that anyone, even Haye, will come along and beat Valuev so that they don’t have him as a champion anymore. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say that American boxing fans have “taken to” Haye like he says.

For that to happen, Haye would actually have to beat someone with a pulse and not 2nd tier heavyweights that were handpicked for him. Haye hasn’t done a thing since moving up to the heavyweight division over a year ago. He said he was going to shock the world and fight a really good heavyweight. Instead, we got to see Haye fight a 38-year-old Monte Barrett. Haye lost credibility with me, and a lot of other American boxing fans, with that move. Haye would have been better off keeping his mouth shut when he bragged about fighting a good heavyweight.

“They are going to be behind me and you’re going to see something special,” Haye says. I seriously doubt it. There might be some Americans that are backing Haye, because like I said before, they’re sick of Valuev. But that doesn’t mean they’re behind Haye and rooting for him like true blue boxing fans. I also don’t think that Haye is going to look special in beating Valuev, if he’s successful at all at getting a win. I see Valuev winning this fight by a knockout in the 6th or 7th rounds. But the only way that Haye will win is if he fights in cautious safety first manner like Evander Holyfield and Ruslan Chagaev did against Valuev. If Haye goes out looking for a knockout, he’s going to get destroyed by Valuev and ruined.