By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion David Haye (27-2, 25 KOs) has finally picked out his opponent for his May 21 fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Unfortunately for the boxing fans this is arguably a step down from Haye’s last over-matched opponent in fringe contender Mark De Mori, who Haye blasted out in one round last January. Instead of fighting De Mori, Haye will be fighting little known 31-year-old fighter Arnold Gjergjaj (29-0, 21 KOs) on 5/21. American heavyweight Shannon Briggs was very unhappy at finding out the news of Haye fighting Gjergjaj instead of him. Briggs came to Haye’s press conference today and confronted him, saying “Tell everyone why you’re fighting him [Gjergjaj] instead of me.” I think the question has an obvious answer. Briggs is a dangerous threat to Haye. Gjergjaj is not a threat.
Gjergjaj originally comes from Gjakova, Kosovo, but now lives in beautiful Switzerland.
Gjergjaj’s last six wins have comes against these fighters: Marino Goles, Denis Bakhtov, Zoltan Csala, Adnan Redzovic, Tibor Balogh and Emilio Ezequiel Zarate. In other words, Gjergjaj is fighting the same level of opposition that the 21-year-old prospect Hughie Fury is fighting right now despite being 10 years older at 31.
It’s unclear what qualifications the 6’5” Gjergjaj had for getting picked out by Haye other than a padded resume of nobodies, and no real wins over quality opposition. That’s about all I can come up with for why Haye picked out Gjergjaj. A more logical pick for Haye’s next fight would have been 44-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs, who had come down to the UK hoping to find Haye to sign on for his May 21 fight.
The 6’4” Briggs, who can still punch with an incredible power, complained that he couldn’t find Haye no matter how hard he tried. Briggs went to the gym that Haye frequents in order to try and find him, but unfortunately he had no luck. Now that Haye has announced that he’ll be fighting Gjergjaj, it seems obvious that there was no real interest there from Haye in a fight against a still dangerous Briggs. It’s too bad because Briggs would have at least been interesting opponent. I mean, I don’t think I can even pronounce Gjergjaj’s name.
Gjergjaj’s experience as a pro has been woeful. He only has one name on his resume in Denis Bakhtov, who he had to struggle to beat by a close 12 round decision last year in June 2015. This is the same Bakhtov that Anthony Joshua blasted out in two rounds in 2014, and Manuel Charr stopped in five rounds in 2013. As such, you can see that Haye isn’t even fighting a guy at Manuel Charr’s level. This is so, so sad. I expected more from Haye instead of him picking an arguably worse fodder opponent than his last opponent De Mori, and even worse than Charr.
For some reason, Gjergjaj’s nickname is “The Cobra.” I don’t know why because he hasn’t beaten anyone special for him to be deserving a nickname yet.
It would seem that Haye is trying to get ready for a big money fight against the 6’6” Joshua. By facing the 6’5” Gjergjaj, it could in theory help Haye get ready for a Joshua fight in the future. However, I don’t see it helping Haye because Gjergjaj clearly isn’t a major contender with the talent to really help him. We know this because he had to struggle to defeat Bakhtov. If you’re a good heavyweight, then you’re going to be able to make easy work of Bakhtov. Gjergjaj couldn’t do it.
It’ll be interesting to see if Haye will be able to sell tickets for his fight against Gjergjaj. Will fans want to give up their hard-earned money to see Haye fight an unknown fighter, or will the fans stay away from this odd bird fight and choose instead to use their money to pay bills or to go have a nice meal?
I wouldn’t mind seeing Haye fight Gjergjaj if the fight had come much earlier in Haye’s pro career in his first five fights. But with Haye now a veteran fighter with 29 fights under his belt, it doesn’t make any sense for him to fight a guy like Gjergjaj, especially with him yacking about wanting to win a world heavyweight title and to unify all the belts. If Haye truly believes he’s going to win world titles at this point in his career, then why in the heck is he fighting Gjergjaj rather than someone good?
Heck, I’d be happy to see Haye merely fight a fringe contender at this point. That’s not what’s happening. Haye is taking a step down from his fight against De Mori to fight an easy mark that he’ll likely be able to dispatch in one round. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if this fight goes more than one round. The only way I can see Gjergjaj making it beyond the 1st round is if Haye carries him by taking it easy on him.
Haye had this to say about his fight against Gjergjaj:
”I said I wanted to fight regularly and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Every two to three months I want to be knocking somebody out and working my way back into title contention. Fighting a big heavyweight like ‘The Cobra’ has really got my juices flowing, taking a unbeaten fighters ‘0’ from him always makes the victory that much sweeter. Expect another explosive knock out!”
I guess Haye can excuse his weak opponent by saying that he’s fighting frequently, so that means he’s going to have to fight a lot of lower level guys in order to stay busy. I still think it’s sad that Haye chose this guy Gjergjaj rather than someone like Briggs. At least if Haye had fought #7 WBA Briggs, he would have been fighting someone with a high ranking. Briggs is a fight that would have made a lot more sense than fighting Gjergjaj. Haye would have been fighting an opponent with a top 10 ranking in Briggs. Haye also would have been facing a former world champion who is well-known in the boxing world.
Briggs would have been perfect for Haye if he wanted a semi-soft opponent with a name and a high ranking. I’ve never even heard of Gjergjaj until today. I’ve heard of most heavyweights in the top 100, but I have never ever heard of Gjergjaj. Haye must have had to really dig deep to find Gjergjaj as his opponent. That was some real digging on Haye’s part to find him. I’m just wondering how many quality opponents Haye ruled out before he found Gjergjaj? My guess is quite a lot of them.
Comments are closed.