By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye (26-2, 15 KOs) makes his long awaited comeback tonight against 33-year-old Mark De Mori (30-1-2, 26 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Haye says he’s hoping that De Mori comes out to make a good fight of it tonight, because Haye wants to see how much of his own rusty skills are left after sitting out of the ring for close to four years.
On paper, De Mori would seem to be absolutely zero threat to beating Haye. However, when you’re an old small guy that spent of his career in the cruiserweight like Haye, even a fringe level fighter like De Mori is a threat to him. I stress the world old when is talk of Haye, because he looks older now and he likely has lost a large percentage of the skills that he had four years ago in his last fight.
My guess is Haye is probably at 60 percent of what he was before his long layoff. The one thing that will save Haye is his punching power. He can probably still punch a little despite the long layoff. Another thing that will help Haye is he’s facing a mediocre fighter with an inflated record in De Mori. As such, Haye doesn’t need to be the fighter he was years ago to beat De Mori. He just needs to be at roughly 25% to 50% of his former self to beat a guy as limited as De Mori. That’s the way I see it.
I know I got it in there,” Haye said to IFL TV about his boxing ability. “It’s one thing talking about it and another thing proving it. It’s going to be a great night. The wait is finally over. I hope Mark De Mori brings it. I can’t wait to see what I’ve got left,” Haye said.
Well, it’s definitely not a good thing that De Mori has been talking retirement if he beats Haye. Just the fact that De Mori is talking about retirement suggests that his mind might not be in the sport any longer at this point in his career. De Mori is talking about cashing out with this fight, and that sets my bat radar off big time. I mean, if De Mori isn’t motivated enough to continue his career if/when he takes Haye’s aging 35-year-oold scalp tonight, then what does that tell you about De Mori’s motivation for the fight?
I think De Mori is just going to be going through the motions out there tonight, but not be there mentally the way he’ll need to for him to have a chance at pulling off the upset and beating Haye in front of his many British fans. De Mori’s physique did not look good at the weigh-in on Friday. I’ve seen some of De Mori’s past fights, and he had usually had a trim midsection and looks toned.
Yesterday, De Mori’s stomach looked like of flabby, and it stuck out like he’s filling it with too much food or beverages. De Mori didn’t look like someone who had been training hard for this fight. De Mori is still a muscular fighter, but not a particularly healthy one. De Mori kind of reminds me of a weight lifter that doesn’t focus too much on the cardio or his diet.
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