By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye is pulling for unbeaten Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) to unseat IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs) next month in their fight on April 9 at the O2 Arena in London, England. The way Haye sees it, if Joshua wins the IBF crown, he’ll immediately have to voluntary title defenses he can get out of the way before he’s forced to face his mandatory challenger.
Haye feels that he’ll be one of those voluntary defenses Joshua will take. Despite having fought only once in the past three and a half years, Haye likes his chances against the 6’6” Joshua.
It could be that Haye has noticed that Joshua pushes his punches and lacks the explosive power that you see in faster heavyweights like Deontay Wilder, or Haye could just be looking for a cash out fight to make a big payday before going off into another long inactive period.
“For me, it’s perfect. If Joshua wins this next fight, he’s the IBF heavyweight champion of the world and I could be challenging for that. He’s got a couple of voluntary defences he can have before November,” Haye said to skysports.com.
Haye seems to forget that Joshua is promoted by Eddie Hearn, and he’s very, very careful when his fighters. Of all the guys in Hearn’s Matchroom Sport stable, Joshua is the biggest money maker right now. With Carl Froch retired from the sport after making a killing in his back to back fights against George Groves, Hearn’s new golden goose is the heavily muscled Joshua.
Now I’d like to think that Hearn would be willing to have Joshua take the biggest money fights possible so that he could maximize his earning power and bring in a lot of sweet cash for his Matchroom Sport stable through pay-per-view, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
I see Hearn having Joshua milk the IBF title by facing some bottom feeders for his voluntary defenses if he somehow beats Martin on 4/9. I don’t think Joshua is going to win that fight against Martin mind you, but if he does win it, then I see some milking of titles going on with him. I think once Joshua and Hearn have had their fill of soft defenses and made a boatload of money, then I see them looking to face aging heavyweights like Haye.
“I’ll be rooting for him more than anybody on this planet. I’ll be rooting for him even more than Eddie Hearn will be rooting for him – believe me!” Haye said. “I’ve got a fight coming up and he’s got a big fight coming up – if we get through this, it’ll be talked about.”
Haye says he’s got a “big fight coming up,” but one of the names that’s under consideration for Haye’s next fight is the 44-year-old Shannon Briggs. I don’t consider that a big fight, but I guess I have different standards than Haye. I think Haye vs. Briggs is a bigger circus act than Haye vs. Mark De Mori. It’s just a pure mismatch given Briggs’ advanced age and his lack of fights against top tier opposition in the last six years. The last time that Briggs took on a quality opponent was back in 2010, when he was beaten up by former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in a one-sided affair.
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