By Scott Gilfoid: In what could be a bad sign in terms of potential stamina issues on Saturday, 35-year-old David Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) weighed in at a career high of 227.3 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in for his 12 round heavyweight fight against #10 WBA Mark De Mori (30-1-2, 26 KOs) for their fight at the O2 Arena in London, England.

This is what I was afraid of. Haye has been out of action for ages, and he’s put on a bunch of useless weight on his hide. Now we’re probably going to see Haye labor around the ring like an old train going up a steep hill with heavy load tailing around it’s backside.

The weight for Haye is five pounds heavier than his previous career high of 222lbs for his fight six years ago against John Ruiz in April 2010. Haye won that fight by a 9th round knockout, but he was younger than and facing a light hitting older fighter at the end of his career in Ruiz.

Despite Haye having bulked up to a career high weigh, De Mori still outweighed him by 16.2lbs in coming in at 243.5lbs. This is a normal weight for De Mori, so he shouldn’t have any issues on Saturday in terms of him possibly gassing out due to his weight being more than usual.

With age and inactivity, Haye has put on weight in filling out to be close to 230lbs. While that wouldn’t be an issue if he were a baseball player who needed more bulk to hit homeruns, I think it’s going to hurt him in his comeback. Boxing is an aerobic sport, and if you suddenly put on a lot of weight, it’s hard on the body to fight with the same energy as before. The only way it helps Haye is if he can jump on De Mori early in the first five rounds to try and get him out of there.

A fighter that bulks up can potentially be dangerous for five rounds or so, but after they the extra weight slows them down and they become too tired to throw punches. As such, if De Mori is still around after the 5th, he could give the 35-year-old Haye a royal beating he won’t soon forget. I’m just saying. If I put on a massive amount of weight the way Haye did, I don’t think I would do well at all in a fight, especially if I had been sitting on my duff for the past three and a half years the way Haye has. That can’t be good for Haye to be coming out of a long inactivity and being so heavy now.

Haye’s last three fights were at 210lbs, and he seemed to fight well at that weight. Haye started his career out as a cruiserweight with a normal of slightly less than 200lbs. However, it could be a real problem for Haye with him weighing 17 pounds more than he previously was accustomed to, because it’s going to put more of a load on his heart to pump all the oxygen around.

In Haye’s last three fights before starting his LONG inactivity, he beat Derek Chisora in 2012, lost to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011 and defeated Audley Harrison in 2010.

Hayemaker Boxing is the promoter for the fight card. The fight will be televised on DAVE in the UK for fans interested in watching.