By William Mackay: Moments after stopping a hand-picked 39-year-old Audley Harrison (27-5, 20 KO’s) in the 3rd round on Saturday night at the M.E.N. Arena, in Manchester, England, WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) said he would be fighting the Klitschko brothers next year. However, Haye expects to use his win over the fringe contender Harrison as leverage to get a better deal out of IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and that may be a mistake on Haye’s part.
While his British fans may see value in his win over the 39-year-old Harrison, fans elsewhere saw it as another case of Haye fighting an older opponent who was little threat to his weak chin. Haye might end up ruining a chance at fighting Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko if he asks for too much based on a flimsy win over one of his hand-picked opponents meant to give him a good payday and look good against.
Speaking to Sky Sports News after the Saturday night’s fight, Haye said “Next year I promise that fight is going to happen. I know there is nowhere else for them guys to go. They’re fighting all the guys that everyone is bored of, you know. Audley Harrison is a character in the UK – everybody got behind him. That’s why this fight happened. Who wants to see them fighting fat Americans coming over for a payday? No-one wants to see that so they’ve got no other option but to sit round a table and talk sense. We’ve got to get that fight happening next year. I guarantee I’ll give them the same treatment as Audley Harrison got – and that’s a knockout.”
Thus far, Haye has fought the following fighters at heavyweight: Monte Barrett, 38, Nikolay Valuev, 36, John Ruiz, 38, and Audley Harrison, 39. I don’t think beating those guys puts Haye in position to call the shots with the Klitschko brothers.
If Haye would at least step up and take on someone good like Odlanier Solis, who already stopped him in the amateur ranks, Denis Boytsov, Alexander Povetkin or even Samuel Peter, I could see Haye being able to ask for an even deal with the Klitschko brothers. But beating 39-year-old Harrison isn’t enough. You got to come up with something better than that if you want to ask for parity with the Klitschkos.
Haye says “I’m convinced I can crush anyone in the world. I’m in great condition as you can see and I can land punches whenever I choose to. That’s why this fight went to the third round – I put a lot of money on the third round and lot of my friends and family did. I didn’t want to let them down by doing him too early. Ask around – I told everyone I’d knock him out in three rounds. That’s exactly what I did. No way was he going into that fourth round. If he would have gave me something silly early but he didn’t and he was very cautious. I could have took him out earlier if I really put my foot on the pedal but there was no need. I was waiting for him to give me the perfect opportunity to land my Hayemaker. I knew there was going to be a big third round. I knew the boos would be turning to cheers in a matter of minutes. Adam wasn’t fussed about it and he told me to ignore it. That’s exactly what I did.”
If Haye did carry Harrison for two rounds just because he had money on that fight that’s really off putting. I think that doesn’t make Haye look good. If you’re carrying someone just because of a bet, I don’t respect that. But I buy it either. Haye looked like a timid rabbit in the first two rounds tonight, and only after seeing that Harrison wasn’t about to do anything himself because he looked even more frightened, it was only then that Haye decided to open up with his power shots in the 3rd. Haye had the perfect opponent in front of him. Harrison wasn’t throwing anything, and might as well have been a big statue standing out there. That isn’t what Haye will be facing if he gets a fight with one of the Klitschko brothers.
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