By Sean McDaniel: World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 Ko’s) not only wants to beat his old buddy Audley Harrison (27-4, 20 KO’s) but wants to finish his career for some reason when they meet up on November 13th, at the M.E.N. Arena, Manchester. It looks like some of the things that the 38-year-old Harrison has been saying to Haye have struck a nerve, because Haye seems intent on finishing Harrison’s career once and for all. In an article at the Telegraph.co.uk, Haye says “I’m a completely different animal to the one he [Harrison] stepped in with that day [Haye is referring to the sparring session that he had with Harrison in the past, in which Harrison claims Haye went all out and tried to knock him out in front of Lennox Lewis]. Now things have turned. I’m looking to do maximum damage.”

Haye doesn’t think Harrison has gotten better since winning a Gold Medal in the 2000 Olympics, saying “He peaked at the Olympics. I won’t be taking him lighting, because I’m going to finish his career.” Harrison was 28 when he won the Olympic Gold Medal, which is just a little younger than Haye is now. It’s hard to imagine how good Haye will be if he sticks around until he’s 38. It’s easy to take shots at Harrison for having declined, but Haye is the one that wants to fight him. He could be facing younger fighters.

If Haye does beat Harrison, which is very likely given how poor Harrison has looked for most of his career, it’s a win that proves little. Haye has been fighting mostly older fighters since moving up to the heavyweight division in 2008. While boxing fans want to see Haye get in the ring with one of the Klitschko brothers, Haye hasn’t been able to bring himself to taking that huge challenge. Instead, Haye opted to fight Monte Barrett, Nikolay Valuev and John Ruiz since moving up from the cruiserweight division.

Harrison is ranked number #13 by the WBA, but there are a number of challengers ahead of him that could give Haye a much better run for his money. But they also would have a much better chance of knocking Haye out and taking his WBA title. That could be a very good reason why Haye isn’t fighting better fighters now that he’s champion. If he can get big money to fight lesser fighters without the risk of getting potentially knocked out, then we could be seeing more of this from Haye in the future. The Klitschkos have been after him for the past year, but it seems like Haye isn’t ready to fight either of them right now.