By William Mackay: Boxing great Nigel Benn, 47, thinks former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye still has the tools to beat IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko despite Haye’s embarrassing flop-filled 12 round decision loss last weekend.

Benn doesn’t think Haye can retire on this loss because of how poorly he performed against the big 6’6” Ukrainian.

In an article at thesun.co.uk, Benn said “There is no way David can retire on that performance. I am convinced he has the right tools to beat Wladimir and I just hope he can get a rematch. He must not walk away in defeat. We all know now David used the wrong tactics.”

What Benn says could be true but Haye isn’t going to be given an immediate rematch. That much has already been said by Klitschko and his manager Bernd Boente. If Haye wants to try and avenge his defeat, he’s going to have to fight at least twice against quality opposition and win both fights.

Haye won’t be able to pull out a couple of 38 or 39-year-old heavyweights, like the ones Haye was beating to get a shot at Wladimir and hope that leads to a rematch. Haye will get laughed at if he continues to cherry pick old codgers and think it will get him another shot at Wladimir or a fight against his brother Vitali Klitschko. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer suggested that Haye beat a couple of quality heavyweights like Chris Arreola and Tomasz Adamek and then attempt to get a rematch with Wladimir. Will Haye do that or will he continue to go after older heavyweights on their last leg?

Benn thinks that Haye made the mistake of reusing the same fighting strategy that he deployed against 7-foot Russian Nikolay Valuev in 2009. Benn thought that was the wrong approach to use against Klitschko, who is a lot better than Valuev in terms of boxing skills.

Benn thinks that Haye hit Wladimir more than his other opponents have done in the past and thinks that’s why Haye shouldn’t retire. Benn clearly must have missed Wladimir’s fights against Samuel Peter, Lamon Brewster, Ross Puritty, Corrie Sanders and Tony Thompson because those guys did a lot better job against Wladimir compared to Haye. If you want to compare Haye, he’s more like Eddie Chambers in his fight against Wladimir.