By William Mackay: Next month, World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) will be defending his title against fellow Brit Audley Harrison (27-4, 20 KO’s) on November 13th in what appears to be a huge mismatch of epic proportions on paper. IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko jokingly refers to the Haye-Harrison fight as the “London championship,” and that’s probably not a bad description of what this fight really means in reality. Harrison, 38, is a fringe heavyweight contender, but appears to be more of a 2nd tier heavyweight than someone that’s barely making it into the 1st tier.

Haye hasn’t lived up to expectations since moving up to heavyweight in 2008 and has yet to take on one dangerous heavyweight. This will be Haye’s 2nd title defense of his WBA belt. He defeated 38-year-old John Ruiz, his mandatory challenger, in April 210. You can give Haye a pass for that fight, because Ruiz was, after all, his mandatory challenger but you would have at least liked to have seen Haye step it up for his optional defense to make up for that low quality fight. Harrison is probably an even worse choice of an opponent than Ruiz.

However, it doesn’t matter, because the UK boxing fans are totally into this fight for some reason. The fight appears pointless because if Haye can’t beat an old fighter like Harrison, whose career has been a huge disappointment, then Haye has no business holding the WBA heavyweight title. Haye needs to take on better fighters, and it’s bizarre to say the least that the UK fans are interested in the Haye-Harrison farce.