By William Mackay: It was amusing to see WBA heavyweight champion David Haye defending himself on Sky Sports Ringside the other day when he was questioned about having fought a number of aging heavyweights in their late 30s. Instead of just agreeing with the Sky analyst that he had indeed been facing mainly older heavyweights since moving up in weight to the heavyweight division in 2008, Haye turned the criticism towards the Klitschkos, saying “If you want to criticize me for those fights, then they have to criticize the Klitschkos for their fights…I got a lot of stick for Audley Harrison, but everyone wanted to see that fight.”

Since Haye moved up in weight, he’s fought 38-year-old Monte Barrett, 36-year-old Nikolay Valuev, 38-year-old John Ruiz and 39-year-old Audley Harrison. Haye is about to break that pattern by facing either Alexander Povetkin or Ruslan Chagaev in his next fight, but there’s no getting away from the fact that Haye has fought mostly older fighters since moving up to the heavyweight division. And I disagree with him about everyone wanting to see him fight Audley Harrison. I think there were some British fans that wanted to see it, but I hardly think they account as “everyone” because there were many that didn’t want to see that mismatch, yet Haye went ahead and fought Harrison anyway.

The Klitschkos haven’t focused on fighting older heavyweights, so it’s hard to understand what Haye is talking about when saying that the Klitschkos should be criticized too. But it’s disappointing that Haye had to change the subject from himself to the Klitschkos when he was being asked about why he’s facing older heavyweights.