By William Mackay: After clearly saying that he had put money on himself to stop Audley Harrison in the 3rd round last Saturday night, WBA heavyweight champion David Haye is now saying he didn’t bet on himself. Apparently, the British Boxing Board of Controls (BBBC) were investigating Haye’s claims of betting himself, according to the bbc.co.uk. Haye said “I didn’t need to bet, I made enough money from the fight.” Haye stands to make $8 million for this fight against an opponent that threw only one jab and nothing else in the three rounds of the fight. After their fight, Haye said “I put a lot of money on the 3rd round. A lot of my friends and family did. I didn’t want to let them down by doing it too early.”

I don’t whether Haye really thinking clearly when he said that, because it’s an off putting message to relate to people that you’re holding someone up for a certain amount of rounds just to win more money on a bet. There’s a lot of boxing fans who were none to happy that Haye picked Audley Harrison to fight out of all the potential contenders and champions that he could have fought. Haye says it made sense because of Harrison’s popularity in the UK, and that may be. But to then talk about not trying to take him out until the 3rd round because of money that was put down on that round, that just makes the whole fight seem shady to me. It makes me not want to watch anymore of his fights.

It was a bad match-up to begin with, but Haye talking about bets made it worse. I don’t know whether to believe what Haye originally said or his recent denial of making any bets. All I know is a lot of people paid to see this fight and it was a terrible fight and one that probably should have never been made. I could understand this fight if Haye had at least been fighting some younger good heavyweights like Odlanier Solis or Denis Boytsov. But Haye’s opposition since moving up to the heavyweight division has been lacking. He’s fought Monte Barrett, Nikolay Valuev, who he barely beat, 38-year-old John Ruiz and now 39-year-old Harrison. Where is the quality?