David Haye open to fighting on an undercard

By Boxing News - 04/02/2015 - Comments

haye54 - CopyBy Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) says he’s open to fighting on an undercard for his next fight as long as he’s fighting on a big card. Haye, 34, hasn’t fought in the past three years, and he’s coming off of shoulder surgery which has kept him out of the ring.

Haye is targeting WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Haye wants to follow in a path that will get him a fight against the talented 6’7” Deontay. For Haye to get the shot against the hard-hitting Wilder, he’s going to need to prove that he can beat some solid heavyweights.

Wilder and his promoters aren’t likely to give Haye a fight unless he shows that he can still hang with the best heavyweights in the division. But more importantly, Haye needs to prove that he can make it through an actual training camp without him breaking physically and suffering a fight-cancelling injury like we’ve seen in his last three training camps.

Haye’s fight with Manuel Charr in 2013 fell through after Haye suffered a hand injury. Haye then suffered a cut that derailed plans of him fighting Tyson Fury. Haye then suffered a shoulder injury while training for the rescheduled fight against Fury. There was no way this time for them to reschedule due to the severity of the injury.

“It depends whose undercard I’d be fighting on,” Haye told Starsport in talking about whether he’d fight on an undercard or not. “If it was on a world title bill, a big world-title fight, a big fight that catches the British and world’s imagination, then that’d be fitting. But not a little leisure centre fight, or something like that! I’d probably fill out an arena on my own, but if the opportunity comes to jump on an undercard, I’d definitely consider it for sure.”

At this point I don’t know that Haye is in the positon to be choosy. I think he’s kidding himself if he truly believes that he can sellout an arena all by himself. I believe that the days of him doing that are gone due to his long absence from the boxing ring, and because his frequent injuries.

It’s hard to imagine a lot of boxing fans will want to put their faith in Haye being able to make it through a training camp without going down with a serious injury. The last thing that fans need is to purchase tickets to Haye’s fight and then have it cancelled due to an injury.



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