By Scott Gilfoid: Earlier today, former two division world champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) took to Twitter to ask his 1 million followers to select his first opponent for his long awaited comeback fight. Haye, now 35, hasn’t fought in three years since beating domestic level fighter Dereck Chisora by a 5th round knockout in 2012.
Haye has been out of the ring due to a variety of reasons for the past three years, and it’s unclear whether he’ll ever fight against. To be sure, Haye flaps his gums very now and then, saying he’ll be returning to the ring, but he fails to do so.
Haye was supposed to be returning to the ring at the start of 2015 after rehabbing his surgically repaired right shoulder, but for some reason he never found his way back to action. Now it looks like Haye might try and get back in the ring in 2016. All I know is future events casts their shadows before, and I doubt that we’ll see Haye fighting next year.
If Haye does make a comeback next year, he can potentially make a lot of money in domestic level clashes against the winner of the Dillian Whyte vs. Anthony Joshua. Heck, Haye could make good money fighting the loser of that fight. The British boxing public would greedily scoop up tickets for a fight between Haye and Whyte or Haye and Joshua.
Who would the fans like my first comeback fight to be against after my 3 and a half year absence from the ring?
— David Haye (@mrdavidhaye) November 15, 2015
As for who Haye should choose for his comeback fight, I think he can’t go wrong in selecting one of the fodder opponents that Anthony Joshua has recently fought like 47-year-old Matt Skelton, Matt Legg, Gary Cornish, Raphael Zumbano Love, Paul Butlin, Hector Alfredo Avila, or Konstantin Airich. One of those guys would be perfect for Haye. He could probably KO them just by blowing wind on them, as those guys all toppled over with Joshua hitting them with arm punches.
What Haye needs to do is avoid sparring with anyone, because he’s had really bad luck lately in suffering injury after injury from his workouts. At 35, I think Haye would be better off babying himself by staying away from sparring and working out on the heavy bags. Haye has suffered cuts, hand and shoulder injuries in the last three years while training for fights.
I think that’s a strong indication that Haye’s body isn’t durable enough for him to make it through a training camp in one piece. That’s why I think Haye should just do a lot of slow shadow boxing. I emphasize the word ‘slow’ because I think Haye might even get injured in shadow boxing if he does it at high speed. I think he could pull something or tear up his shoulder again. At 35, Haye knows how to box, so he doesn’t really need any sparring for him to get ready for his fights. Would sparring be helpful for Haye to get ready for his fights? Absolutely. But when you’re as fragile as Haye is right now, I think the last thing you want to do is try and implement sparring during your training camps.
Look, former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez didn’t spar in preparation for his fights when he was a world champion at 160, so I think Haye will be fine if he opts not to spar in training camp. But I think Haye is going to need to be careful with any kind of training he does, because I can see him turning an ankle or pulling a leg muscle just by walking across the floor. The guy needs to really take it easy.
In the past, Haye has said that he’d like to get a rematch against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and/or face the talented WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder for his title. I think Haye’s best chance to get a title shot would be against Wilder, because I think he would jump at the chance of fighting Haye right now. With Wladimir, it’s a different story, because I think he was really bugged by the all the clowning and trash talking Haye did in the lead up to their fight in 2011. I don’t think Wladimir wants to go through that a second time, even though he would make a ton of money fighting Haye a second time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWjt-4FU31c
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