By Ciaran McKinney: On Friday the 20nd of September, an incident took place that reverberated throughout the entire boxing community. The fight between Tyson Fury and David Haye was fast approaching. However, preparations came to a shuddering halt when the former two-weight World Champion Haye suffered a cut in training at the hands of Filip Hrgovic.
Graphic images are testament to the severity of the injury, with Adam Booth stating that a plastic surgeon sealed the wound with six stitches. Common sense tells us that the fight going ahead with this development was an impossibility and the news soon filtered through that the fight had been ‘postponed’.
News outlets and fan sites exploded with the breaking story, only one week away from one of the most anticipated heavyweight bouts in years was off the cards.
There are quite a few ill-advised theories being bandied about regarding the cut suffered by Haye at the hands of a 6’6 Croatian. A common one that I have seen is that Haye had suffered badly during sparring sessions against larger and hard hitting opponents. Rumors of suffering knockdowns at the hands of unbeaten and as of yet, unproven American prospect Deontay Wilder. Stories will always ‘leak’ a fighters camp, but the source and validity of claims will always be in doubt. These claims can be rubbished merely by the sheer secrecy and security of the famed Hayemaker gym in London.
There should and inevitably will be questions as to why Haye was still embroiled in highly competitive sparring sessions seven days away from one of his biggest fights. Whilst it is not unheard of, it is certainly not the wisest thing to do. Haye claims that he returned to his corner after a round against Hrgovic and seen a shocked look on the face of a usually calm Adam Booth, at which point he knew it was a bad cut. How could this be the case, if any boxer suffers a cut that requires 6 stitches, they would know all about it, straight away. That is unless their face is completely numb. Also, this rules out the possibility of a head clash, as he would have known about that straight away and not need the confirmation from his trainer. This leads to the conclusion that Haye at very least was taking some good shots from a relatively unknown European fighter.
All this being said, and whether Haye was struggling with sparring partners, he was a massive favorite in the bout with Fury, and this reporter has no doubt he would have quickly and decisively dispatched of the younger, abrasive Fury. This is not through a biased opinion, but merely through looking at facts. If Fury could be knocked down and out-boxed by Steve Cunningham until a questionable knockout victory, then imagine what the Hayemaker could have done. Not only this, both men were in for a huge payday, possibly the biggest of their careers. Why would David Haye throw that away?
Unfortunately, boxing can be a cruel sport at times, and such is the nature of the beast, injuries and accidents do happen. Not only a gutting moment for David Haye and all the fans who are out of pocket due to PPV buys, hotels, tickets etc. I do feel incredibly sympathetic towards Tyson Fury and his camp. He genuinely thought he was going to win this fight, got into the shape of his career, both mentally and physically, said all the right things, only for it to be snatched away from him at the last second. In interviews given today, emotions ran high and both Tyson and his trainer/uncle Peter were devastated and angry. As opposed to towing the line of rearranging the fight for a later date, they seem dead set on putting this debacle behind them and moving on to bigger and better. However, one feels this could be as big as it gets for the Furys’ in the immediate future. As fans we can only hope that in the coming weeks that calmer heads will prevail and a rearranged date may be set for some time in early 2014.
What do you think about the whole situation? Are you disappointed that the fight is off, do you want to see it rearranged? What is next for Fury? I’d love to hear you opinions and even conspiracy theories on the fight that wasnt to be. Thanks for reading and for more content you can follow me on twitter @BoxingVoiceNews
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