By Gari Jones: Since bursting on the heavyweight scene in April 2007 has David Haye been the revolution or the false dawn of Heavyweight Boxing. It’s fair to say that his one man demolition job of Tomasz Bonin (at the time ranked no.12 by the WBC), raised some eyebrows and expectations of man who went on to beat Jean-Marc Mormeck and Enzo Maccarinelli to unify the Cruiserweight Division.
Before his 2nd fight in the heavyweight scene Haye was being touted as the next Lennox Lewis, a mantle that was expected to given to Audley Harrision who let’s face it has been a letdown since he turned pro. Haye had everything to take away the control that has long been in the hands of the Klitschko brother’s, the looks, talent and charisma to make exciting a division that has long been the frontier of big PPV fight nights. It may be fair to say that too much was being made of Haye to begin with, lots of people were praising him and piling pressure on him too succeed but in all fairness Haye wasn’t exactly shining the limelight away from himself, calling most of the heavyweights pretenders, overweight and non athletic professional boxers.
Haye was backing up his claim after beating Monte Barrett (a man who has challenged for a world title 3 times) in round five doing it in impressive fashion, knocking down Monte five times to claim a TKO victory. After that fast paced exciting encounter, a title fight between Wladimir and Haye had been announced and all was set for June 2009, but all hopes were dashed when Haye suffered (allegedly) a back problem and the fight was called off, then a 2nd chance came to fruition when Vitali offered Haye a chance at his WBC version for July 2009, Haye once again pulled out citing a wrist injury as the cause. Although no-one can claim Haye wasn’t injured, it does raise suspicion that Haye wasn’t prepared to take a shot for a second time of asking by once again pulling out because of a suspicious wrist injury (remember he did fight Valuev with a broken wrist for 10 more rounds after breaking it in the 2nd).
After missing out twice on a title shot, Haye looked to have blown his chances of claiming to unify the division. While confusion took place as to what Haye would do next, the heavens opened up as a Heavyweight title shot came calling in the shape of Nikolai Valuev. This was too be billed as David v Goliath, in what many would call a stagnant fight with little coming from either fighter, Haye did go onto to show some impressive composure instead of the all guns blazing approach, however he did excite the crowd in the 12th by landing a telling left hook that wobbled the Giant Valuev (the only man ever to have hurt him), a points victory in Haye’s favour gave him the WBA version of the Heavyweight Championship.
So whats Haye done since beating the giant Russian, a mandatory defence against John Ruiz (past his best, but put up a hearty display) reaped better results for the crowd as Haye knocked down Ruiz four times (twice 1st, once 5th and 6th) before the fight was stopped in the 9th. And Haye took apart a lack lustre Audley Harrison in what was to be honest a hyped up fight to sell tickets and PPV’s, that’s not to say Haye was bad in that fight as he did what he’s been known to do, stop the fight in exciting fast paced action, but the level of opponent leaves me thinking that Haye isn’t actually very serious about wanting to make a name for himself just to make his bank manager very happy.
So now we’re at the point January 2011 and nine months left till his supposed retirement date and Haye has yet to fight any of the Klitschko’s or any other top 10 contender for that matter. If you use Boxrec.com as the source of the top 10 heavyweights then Haye has a long list of people he can face, if not the Klitschko’s then there’s Adamek, Tony Thompson, Povetkin, Chambers or Samuel Peter’s and not forgetting Chagaev or Denis Boytsov. Haye needs to be facing these people to prepare himself for an encounter with either Vitali or Wladimir.
Haye hasn’t lit the division alight as most people were expecting him to do, and he can’t consider himself to the real deal or the messiah of the heavyweight circuit until he start’s to challenge the top tier of the division as the Klitschko’s have been doing for over 5 years now. He could unify the titles and have a short stay as champion; most likely he would collect the belts and vacate them as he did the Cruiserweight titles. Haye is a man of great ability I won’t deny that and neither should anyone else, but until he starts living up to his own words he won’t have much of legacy in the Heavyweight Division, Just a nice bank balance and a what could’ve or should’ve been.
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