By William Mackay: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) appears to be a little green with envy about tonight’s title fight between World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO’s and Shannon Briggs (51-5-1, 45 KO’s) in Germany.

Haye says in an article at thesun.co.uk, “Vitali-Briggs? I won’t bother. Vitali is fighting a 38-year-old guy who is a chronic asthmatic. I anticipate Briggs getting slowly broken down and knocked out. For someone with asthma, he has shown a lot of heart. Briggs turns up, shouts, screams, rips his T-shirt off and dyes his dreadlocks blond. It is pantomime for the Germans, but real boxing people know their fight is a waste of time.”

A lot of boxing fans are equally turned off by Haye’s fight against 38-year-old Audley Harrison, who Haye will be fighting next month on November 13th at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England.

Harrison is a 2nd tier heavyweight with zero wins over top tier opponents during his entire career. Briggs at least has huge power, good hand speed and has wins over top level opponents during his career.

Like Haye, Briggs has a bodybuilder physique, and you could say that Haye is a younger version of what Briggs used to be in his late 20s. Had Briggs been matched up against a slow heavyweight like Nikolay Valuev at the same age as Haye, it’s pretty clear that Briggs would be right where Haye is right now.

Haye had the chance to fight both of the Klitschko brothers, but has opted to fight guys like John Ruiz, Valuev and Monte Barrett. Those guys are all pushing 40. And Haye still says he’s going to retire next year in October when he turns 31. Haye just turned 30 on October 13th, and he now has exactly one year left in his career.

The Briggs-Klitschko bout is something of a joke, because no one is giving Briggs any chance in this fight. He’s become too muscular, and it has slowed him down and made him easier to hit. However, Vitali wanted to fight Haye, and has called him out repeatedly. Haye hasn’t been interested thus far.