Haye interested in Klitschko rematch

By Boxing News - 12/01/2016 - Comments

haye343434

By Scott Gilfoid: If the cards play out right, 36-year-old David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) and 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) could meet up for a rematch in 2017 if Wladimir is able to beat IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua to take his title.

Haye wants to fight the winner of the Joshua-Klitschko fight. He’s never faced Joshua, so obviously that’s a fight that he badly wants. But if Wladimir is able to go back to the Fountain of Youth to find the energy needed for him to beat Joshua, then Haye would love a rematch with him.

Both Haye and Wladimir will be at ringside on December 10 to scout out Joshua in his voluntary title defense against fringe contender Eric Molina (25-3, 19 KOs) at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

The fight is expected to be a gross mismatch, but Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t taking any chances of him getting beaten. Joshua is set to get the biggest payday of his short pro boxing career against Klitschko if he beats Molina, which is why Hearn likely selected him. If Hearn had picked someone with some real talent and/or punching power, then there would be a chance that Joshua could lose. I wouldn’t say it would be a good chance, but there would be a chance.

Haye lost to Wladimir five years ago by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in July 2011 in losing by the scores 118-108, 117-109 and 116-110. The fight took place in Hamburg, Germany. Haye was knocked own in the 11th round by Wladimir. Throughout the fight, the 210lb Haye was falling down from being bumped by the much heavier 242lb Wladimir. Haye needed to bulk up for the fight, but instead he chose to be light and fast. Unfortunately for Haye, he had a toe injury, so even his mobility wasn’t that great.

Haye commented to skysports.com about Wladimir:

“I’ve seen him out and about a couple of times. We’ve settled our differences. He came out on top so there is no real beef,” said Haye. but maybe that chance has gone now. You never know. If he goes out there and knocks out Joshua then a rematch with myself and Klitschko could be one of the biggest rematches.”

It would be interesting to see if Wladimir would want to fight Haye a second time. Wladimir has had the opportunities in the past to fight Haye a second time, but he’s chosen not to for whatever reason. Perhaps now with Wladimir’s nearing the end, he might want to look to cash out with a fight against Haye.

It would seem like the smart thing for Wladimir to do rather than him going back to his old tiresome routine of defending his titles against the run of the mill fringe level heavyweights that he padded record with like Bryant Jennings, Alex Leapai, Mariusz Wach, Tony Thompson, Francesco Pianeta, Jean Marc Mormeck, Eddie Chambers and Samuel Peter.

Wladimir fought a lot of guys that didn’t bring him a lot of money compared to the Haye fight. You would hope that Wladimir would look to take the best possible fight if he beats Joshua next year. Of course, there will likely be a rematch clause in the contract for the Joshua-Klitschko fight, which means that Wladimir and Joshua could fight a second time.

It’s doubtful that Wladimir will beat Joshua though, because he’s up there in age at 40 now, he looked terrible in his last two fights, and he hasn’t fought in over a year. By the time Wladimir faces Joshua in the first half of 2017, Wladimir will have been out of the boxing ring for a year and a half. That’s not good news for Wladimir. That’s why it’s hard for me to take the fight seriously.

Wladimir is not taking a tune-up like normal fighters do after they’ve been out of the ring for a long, long time. The whole fight strikes me as a cash out one for Wladimir rather than one where he seriously is competing to try and win back his titles.

Haye will be fighting on March 4 against British cruiserweight Tony Bellew in a fight that will be televised on Sky Box Office pay-per-view from the O2 Arena in London, UK. The Haye vs. Bellew fight is seen as a sick mismatch by a lot of boxing fans. The fight is going to be analyzed to death by fans with many of them trying to find any kind of reasons why the 33-year-old Bellew might have a chance of pulling off a major upset to beat Haye.

The most reason thing the fans are latching onto is how emotionally worked up Haye was at last Wednesday’s kickoff press conference with Bellew and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport. The fans and some boxing writers believe that because Haye got excited and angry at the press conference, it means that he’s mentally crumbling and that’s going to lose to Bellew because of that. It’s real desperate and simple-minded stuff.

The fact of the matter is the Haye-Bellew fight is such a mismatch, Haye is going to win the fight even if he’s asleep for all of the remaining press conferences and the weigh-in. Whether Haye is upset or bored for the press conferences, it doesn’t matter one bit.

Bellew is out of his class in moving up to heavyweight to fight Haye or any halfway decent heavyweight. Heck, Bellew hasn’t even proven himself as being a good fighter in the cruiserweight division yet. I’m still waiting for Bellew to fight his mandatory challenger Mariris Briedis. I can’t wait to see what happens in that fight.

Honestly, I think Bellew will be stripped of his title by the World Boxing Council before he even considers facing Briedis. That’s a fight that I NEVER see happening. Briedis is just too good, and if Bellew loses to that guy, then he can forget about the nice money fights against the likes of Marco Huck or Denis Lebedev. What I see happening is this: Bellew will be knocked out by Haye in the 1st round on March 4. The WBC WON’T strip Bellew of his cruiserweight title.

They also won’t force Bellew to fight Briedis yet, even though the title defense has been due ever since Bellew won the vacant WBC cruiserweight title earlier this year in May in his 3rd round knockout win over Ilunga Makabu in Liverpool, England. Bellew will then be allowed to steer around Briedis by taking a unification match against the winner of the Lebedev vs. Murat Gassiev fight or by fighting WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk. Bellew will lose to one of those guys. As such, Bellew will never fight Briedis. At that point, I see Bellew moving up to heavyweight, beating some dreadful heavyweights in order to get ranked in the top 15. Once that happens, Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn will likely match him against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a Bellew vs. Joshua fight. It will play out big in the UK, while the rest of the boxing world will likely tune it out. This is how I see Bellew’s career playing out in the next year or two.

As for David Haye, he’ll beat Bellew without any problems, and then get a shot against the winner of the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight. It’ll be Joshua that Haye faces in my view. Haye doesn’t have the size to beat Joshua. It would be a real problem for Haye to try and deal with the three-inch height advantage the 6’6” Joshua will have over him.

If Haye loses to Joshua, I would hope that Haye doesn’t disappear for four years like he did after his win over Dereck Chisora in 2012. Haye didn’t resurface until 2016. That would be sad if Haye doesn’t come back until he’s 40-years-old to resume his career.