By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye says he’s holding discussions with WBA heavyweight champion Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne for a title fight against him next. Haye believes that the 36-year-old Browne will ultimately agree to fight him next on May 21 at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
However, Browne has a commitment to facing 42-year-old Fres Oquendo next, and the only way of getting around that fight would be for Oquendo to get a step aside payment for him to let the Haye-Browne fight take place.
Browne’s manager Matt Clark from Hatton Promotions doesn’t see it as being realistic that Haye will be Browne’s next opponent. He sees it as Oquendo all the way for Browne.
Haye also has Shannon Briggs and Malik Scott as potential opponents for his May 21 fight. One of those two will most likely wind up as his opponent.
“Prior to the fight with Chagaev we signed an undertaking that our next fight and first defence of the title will be against Fres Oquendo,” said Clark via skysports.com. “The call outs from Briggs, Parker’s team and Solomon Haumono are absolutely pointless. Realistically they’re just trying to get some media on the back of Lucas’s historic accomplishment. We will honor our contractual agreement and we look forward to having Lucas win the WBA tournament and continuing to make history”.
If Haye were to capture the WBA title off of Browne, he would get an easy first defense against Oquendo, but shortly after that, he would find himself having to deal with increasingly better heavyweights like Luis Ortiz. That would put Haye in a position where he would either have to face Ortiz, and get knocked out, or vacate the WBA title to avoid that from happening.
Of course, Haye could also get injured and have his WBA title stripped from him by the World Boxing Association. I could definitely see that happening. A good old injury for Haye at the right time to avoid a potentially embarrassing and painful knockout loss to Ortiz. Of course, this is all future speculation about what would happen if Haye got his hands on the WBA title.
“A very good thing has happened and that was Lucas Browne winning the WBA heavyweight championship of the world,” said Haye on his Facebook page. “I haven’t been able to nail down an opponent as yet, because it seems after speaking to Team Hatton that the possibility of Lucas Browne being available to fight on the show against myself is a possibility. I can’t see a bigger fight at the moment that is available to happen for Lucas Browne, other than myself.”
I really don’t see a fight between Browne and Haye happening unless Haye or Browne comes up with a lot of cash to give to Oquendo to have him step aside. If they end up giving Oquendo a bucket full of cash for him to step aside temporarily, then I don’t know if it would be worth it. I know Haye wants to get his hands on the WBA title, because it would help make him a bigger money maker and be a lure to get him a fight against Anthony Joshua.
I just don’t think he’s going to be able to come up with enough money to pay Oquendo to step aside. I don’t think it’s going to be enough for Oquendo to step aside just so that he has the potential to fight Haye in the future. Oquendo already has a good chance of getting a fight against Haye if he simply beats Browne and wins the WBA title.
Once Oquendo has the WBA heavyweight title, he can easily get fights against guys like Haye, Joshua or even Tyson Fury. Oquendo doesn’t need to get a step aside payment. He just needs to fight Browne, who is a very vulnerable heavyweight champion, and beat him to win his WBA title.
“Obviously Fres Oquendo will need to be happy because he is mandated to fight Lucas Browne next, I’m aware of that,” said Haye. “But once again if you gave Fres Oquendo the chance to fight Lucas Browne or fight myself, I think I know what the answer would be.”
I think Haye should just focus on facing the likes of Briggs or Malik Scott next on May 21 and then go from there.
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