By Mark Hepplestall: On 8th of March 2008, David Haye did what the majority of the world thought would happen and beat Enzo Maccarinelli for the WBA Super World cruiserweight title, WBC cruiserweight title, WBO cruiserweight title and Ring Magazine Cruiserweight title. This was the last fight before he moves up to heavyweight, win or lose. Then Haye did the unthinkable and called out the Klitschko brothers before even fighting at heavyweight, he needed to be noticed, and this was the greatest way to make it happen. At this time before a punch had even been thrown the WBO had made Haye No.3 in their rankings. All of this was to create hype in a division that is filled with people who are not in the same league as the world champions and the WBO have awful rankings e.g. currently David Tua is No.2.

This is when David Haye started laughing all the way to the bank; his first fight at heavyweight was shown on a PPV channel called Setanta Sports. The opposition was Monte Barrett aka the Gate Keeper to the heavyweight division, his last 6 fight records include 3 loses to Cliff Couser who he then had a rematch with and beat him. Lost to Nikolay Valuev for the WBA title, many more people have failed at this stage so no disgrace. Lastly Barrett lost to Hasim Rahman for the WBC interim title via point’s decision. He did then win 3 fights on the bounce against Cliff Couser, Damon Reed and Tye Fields all by TKO/KO. David Haye then went on to destroy Barrett in 5 rounds and then recall out the Klitschko brothers, which got him publicity and loads of people compared the champions fights with Monte Barrett, this was the start of the Heavyweight Hype Job.

The Fight the people wanted was on, yet Haye was moaning about the terms of the contract he had with Wladimir, saying on Setanta sports that he had to fight Wladimir and if he wins he then has to fight either a rematch or take on Vitali, and then there was the money issue which was broke down to Wladimir taking all of Germany TV channel (terrestrial) money and ½ of the Setanta Sports money. Then Setanta went bust due to the Global Recession and Haye got an injury yet I assume he pulled out with a fake injury due to him not getting paid and Wladimir’s refusal to renegotiate terms. So point one blame the banks for the recession and the cancellation of Wladimir Klitschko Vs Haye.

Wladimir then decides he is not wasting his time with David Haye and all negotiations are cancelled for the foreseeable future and David Haye gets global condemnation. Enter Nikolay Valuev the WBA title holder, off topic but weird that Wladimir or Vitali didn’t enter negotiations to fight Valuev when he was WBA champion considering they want to unify all the belts.

On the 7th of November 2009 David Haye took on Nikolay Valuev for the WBA title in a fight that everybody outside UK thought Haye would lose via KO. Haye fought a smart fight, just like Roy Jones Jr did against John Ruiz 7 years ago. I had Haye win by 1 or 2 rounds but it was very close even though Haye didn’t land many punches Valuev landed less and missed horrifically. After the fight Valuev’s reputation went down the drain, he went from a power puncher with 65% KO rate to a pillow puncher, slow and amateurish. Truth is Valuev would give anyone in the top 10 a good matchup and beat atleast ½ of them. Also to fight Valuev Haye had to enter a contract with GBP and Don King to bypass other boxers for a world title fight and in return gives money to other boxers including John Ruiz and Ruslen Chagaev.

Enter the Klitschko’s wanting to unify all the world titles again now “pillow puncher” Valuev was out of the way. This time the Klitschko’s called out David Haye even though he couldn’t fight them due to him having to fight John Ruiz or be stripped of his WBA title. So continuing to laugh his way to the bank thousands tuned into Sky PPV to watch Haye win or lose to John Ruiz putting millions in his back pocket. So on the 3rd of April 2010 John Ruiz stepping into the M.E.N Arena in Manchester and almost left on a stretcher 1 minute later, credit to Ruiz he kept coming at Haye even though that is suicide. Ruiz was knocked down in the 1st, 5th and 6th and hurt in almost every round bar one which I actually gave to Ruiz, John Ruiz was stopped in the 9th.

David Haye did say he wanted to be World Heavyweight Champion; he had now achieved this goal and didn’t really need the Klitschko’s. Haye then put together a fight with Audley Harrison; an all British Showdown that has got Haye worldwide criticism for not fighting a Klitschko yet will still get Haye another 5 million in the bank. What would be next, well Haye’s hands are forced to fight Chagaev next as he is the mandatory for the WBA and then Haye will laugh even more to the bank as more people watch Haye just to lose and put even more money in his pocket. Point is Haye can fight who he wants and global condemnation is only giving him more publicity and money. I expect Haye to fight either Vitali or Wladimir before he retires in a last big payday and a matchup that will not act as a career defining moment.