By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye sees trouble ahead for unbeaten heavyweight contender #5 IBF Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) if he elects to face #6 IBF Carlos Takam (33-2-1, 25 KOs) in an IBF eliminator bout. Haye heard that the IBF has mandated that Joshua, 26, face Takam in an IBF eliminator.
Haye sees that fight a potentially dangerous one for Joshua due to Takam’s punching power, chin and overall toughness. Haye sees Takam as a better version of Dereck Chisora. In fact, Haye sees Takam as being three-times better than Chisora.
In Haye’s mind, Joshua should take on some popular if he’s going to start taking risky fighters like Takam. Haye isn’t keeping any secrets about the fact that he would like to face Joshua himself. He figures that even if Joshua loses the fight, at least he would get a good payday and he could learn from the defeat and then rebuild his career.
“I’ve heard that the IBF has mandated that he fight Carlos Takam for the No.1 spot for the IBF for Charles Martin’s title. In theory, that sounds fine, but Carlos Takam was a sparring partner I had over for two months. I used him before I fought Chisora. I think he’s bigger, stronger, better punch variety, a better puncher, and a better chin than Chisora. He’s like a third times better version than Chisora. I’m not sure if that’s the right approach for him just yet, because the pressure that he’ll get put on by Takam will be like no other pressure that he’s had before. So is that the route you’re going to go down?”
I agree with Haye that Takam is a tough customer. He was stopped in the 10th round by Alexander Povetkin in 2014, but other than that fight, Takam has been a handful for most of the heavyweights he’s faced. If Joshua can’t get Takam out of there by bum rushing him the way he’s been doing against the gawd awful opposition that his promoter Eddie Hearn has been feeding him since he turned pro, then I can see Joshua being in a lot of trouble. He would be forced to take a lot of big head shots from Takam, and that might prove to be difficult.
Joshua was buzzed in the 2nd round in his last fight against Dillian Whyte last December. Joshua was lucky that Whyte injured his shoulder in that round because if he had to continue to take big shots from Whyte, I don’t think he would have been able to stand up to his power.
“I looked at the IBF’s rankings and I saw that him and Joseph Parker are next to one another,” Haye said. “Is he going to fight him in the final eliminator? All of those fights are tough fights. He’s got no easy fights now. All of those fights he has now are fights that he can potentially lose. If you’re going to take a fight that you might lose, then why not take the biggest fight in the world. If you lose, you get a lot of dough, and you can at least come back from that. If he fights Carlos Takam and loses to Carlos Takam, then what? His value plummets. He doesn’t make any money because nobody knows who Carlos Takam is. He’s [Joshua] a pay-per-view fighter now, and he has to fight the big names. Those big names come with danger,” Haye said.
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