Haye hoping to face Vitali Klitschko in 2014

By Boxing News - 06/02/2013 - Comments

haye213By Scott Gilfoid: #7 WBC, David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) says he’s hoping to get a fight against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) in 2014. Haye seems to have changed his mind about wanting to target IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko for some reason and now he’s back to trying to get a fight with Vitali.

This situation seems a hopeless one for the 32-year-old Haye, as he’s not ranked high enough to force a fight with Vitali in 2014, and chances are that the big 6’7” Ukrainian will choose to retire next year, if he doesn’t do it this year.

Haye said to Sky Sports News: “Hopefully [Vitali happens as] that’s the goal, to regain the championship. Vitali Klitschko has to fight with a guy, I forget what his [Bermane Stiverne] name is…If it does happen [with Vitali], it probably won’t happen until next year – so I’m just going to stay active.”

It seems like a pipe dream on Haye’s part. I’m all for him staying active because that’s what he should have been doing ever since he got beat by Wladimir in 2011, but he made the mistake of sitting idle, thinking he could get another crack at the Klitschkos just based on him being better known than the other heavyweight contenders. How wrong Haye was.

Neither Klitschko has shown any interest in fighting him and Haye has only fought once in the past two years, beating domestic heavyweight Derek Chisora by a 5th round TKO last year in July.

In the two years since Haye lost to Wladimir, he should have fought no less than five times in that time span. Instead, Haye hasn’t done anything other than the Chisora fight, making it easy for the Klitschkos to ignore him without taking heat from the boxing public and without being forced to fight him by one of the sanctioning bodies.

Haye is presently nursing an injured left hand. After it heals at some point, he’ll be facing recently Vitali victim Manuel Charr. If Haye wins that fight, he’s going to have to fight other guys while waiting for the sanctioning bodies to rank him high enough to become the mandatory for Vitali.

Like I said, by the time that Haye does become the mandatory challenger for the WBC title, Vitali will have long retired. Haye would then be fighting the likes of Bermane Stiverne or Chris Arreola for the WBC title instead of Vitali.



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