By William Mackay: In looking at some of the less than stellar opposition that WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (25-1, 23 KO’s) has faced in the three years that he’s been fighting as a heavyweight, I think he could have been a much more popular fighter than he is now around the world.

I’m not talking about just in the UK. Heck, they’ll love him over there no matter who he faces. You put him in with Martin Rogan seven days a week and his British fans are going to love Haye like mad. But the rest of the world obviously feels differently about Haye. They wonder why Haye never fought any young heavyweights with talent like Denis Boytsov, Robert Helenius, Alexander Povetkin or Odlanier Solis.

Haye never fought these guys and you have wonder why. Instead of fighting younger talented heavyweights, Haye chose to fight 39-year-old Audley Harrison, 38-year-old John Ruiz, 38-year-old Monte Barrett and 36-year-old Nikolay Valuev. By not fighting younger guys that could maybe beat him, I think Haye is a lot less popular now around the world than he would otherwise be.

As such, I see his upcoming summer fight with Wladimir Klitschko not being nearly as big as would have been had Haye stepped it up against younger heavyweights. Of course, the flipside is if Haye did fight Helenius, Povekin, Solis and Boytsov, he likely would have been knocked out several times and thus wouldn’t be getting a big retirement payday against Klitschko. The Klitschko fight is Haye’s gold watch in effect. It’s just too bad the fight couldn’t be bigger.