By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye says Dereck Chisora can forget all about fighting Carlos Takam on his May 5th card on Sky Box Office, as the only option given to him is heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce (3-0, 3 KOs). It’s Joyce or no deal.
Haye is trying to get Chisora (27-8, 19 KOs) to agree to the fight against the 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joyce, but he’s been dragging his feet in accepting that fight. Haye says he’s put together a nice package deal with Chisora’s promoter Eddie Hearn for him to take the fight with Joyce, but he’s waiting for him to agree to it. In the meantime, Chisora, 34, will be fighting this Saturday night on the undercard of Dillian Whyte vs. Lucas Browne on Sky Sports at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
Chisora still doesn’t have an opponent for that card, which tells you all you need to know about the quality of the guy that will ultimately be picked out for him to fight. It’s not going to be a live body that is trotted into the ring to face Chisora this Saturday night, but that’s alright because the May 5th fight is the one where he’s being asked to fight the 6’6” 240 lb. Joyce.
“I talked to Don Charles, Chisora’s trainer, and he said he’s going to advise Chisora to take the fight. So his own coach wants it,” Haye said about Charles talking to Chisora about facing Joe Joyce on May 5th. “His manager wants it. I want it. Eddie Hearn wants it. Joyce wants it. Chisora shook Joyce’s hand and said, ‘If the money is right, we’ll take it.’ Myself and Eddie Hearn put a package together, which is more than his last fight [against Agit Kabayel] for the European title, and his next fight next week. So he’s got no excuse not to take it,” Haye said.
Haye sounds a little too needy to me. I think he might be scaring Chisora off with his sense of urgency to try and get him to fight Joyce. If it was me trying to get Chisora to say yes to the Joyce fight, I’d have asked him once, and I would be acting bored while offering him the fight. I’d probably yawn while asking Chisora if he’s interested in facing Joyce.
The last thing Haye should be doing is acting needy. He’s probably scarring Chisora off with the way he keeps imploring him to take the May 5th fight with Joyce. As it is, Joyce might have already scared Chisora off with the way he’s knocked out his last two opponents Donnie Palmer and Rodolf Jozic. Joyce had the right idea of just using his left hand only in his first fight of his career against Ian Lewison in October of last year. Joyce didn’t look that great when he was fighting with just his left hand. He looked robotic and not particularly powerful even when he did use his right hand. But in Joyce’s last two fights, he’s used his right hand and he’s been knocking guys out quickly in the 1st round. I’m sure those fast 1st round knockouts by Joyce caught the attention of Chisora, because he’s not been eager at all to take a fight with him. Chisora normally jumps at the chance of fighting when he’s offered weak opponents like Drazan Janjanin, Andras Csomor and Robert Filipovic, but it’s a different story now that he’s being offered a fight with a live body in Joyce.
”Not on my card,” Haye said when asked by the boxing media ifChisora could possibly fight Carlos Takam on May 5th instead of Joyce. ”He’s not fighting Takam. He’s not fighting Takam on my card. He’s guaranteed not. The only way Chisora is fighting on my card is if it’s against Joe Joyce. That’s it,” Haye said in ruling out entirely a fight between Chisora and Takam on May 5th on his undercard.
Instead of Haye trying to setup a Chisora-Joyce fight, he should be offering Takam the Joyce fight on May 5th. I’m just saying. The smallish 6’1” Chisora is starting to look like an over-the-hill fighter at 34-years-old. He’s 3 out of his last 5 five fights since 2016. Where’s the gain in beating a guy with that kind of record? If I was Joyce, I’d be putting that question to Haye, because he doesn’t seem to realize that it’s now commonplace to beat Chisora. The days where it meant something in beating Chisora are long over with. Joyce isn’t going to get any credit for thrashing Chisora, because he’s on his way to palookaville fast.
Haye should be trying to setup a deal for Joyce to fight the likes of Takam, Agit Kabayel, Kubrat Pulev, Charles Martin, Bermane Stiverne, Christian Hammer, BJ Flores, Guillermo Jones, Dominic Breazeale, Amir Mansour or Alexander Dimitrenko. Haye doesn’t need Chisora for Joyce to get a lot of attention. Joyce looks more than good enough to beat all of the above mentioned fighters. The only guy out of that bunch that might give Joyce some problems is the 6’4 ½” Pulev, and that’s only because he has a great jab. Joyce beats the rest of them easily. Haye should offer the same deal that he’s offering Chisora to all of those fighters and see which one of them agrees to take the fight with Joyce. Haye obviously has to move quickly, because May 5th is only two months away. Those guys might not eager to take the May 5th fight with Joyce if they’re going to get less than 8 weeks of training for the fight.
”I was impressed. A lot of people have said that Joe Joyce is a slow starter,” Haye said to IFL TV about Joyce’s win over Donnie Palmer last Saturday night. “We’re trying to get him [Joyce] to be more explosive, and we saw it tonight. We’ve heard in the past that he’s not a one-punch knockout artist. Well, he looked like that tonight. He can do a back-flip, so he’s got the explosion. He just needs to implement it. Tonight, people just started to see what we’ve been seeing behind closed doors,” Haye said about Joyce’s progress as a pro.
Joyce’s jab was awful slow, but his right hand had enough power in it last Saturday night to put the 6’10” Donnie Palmer down on his backside in the opening seconds of their fight at York Hall in Bethnal Green, in London, UK. The power was there with Joyce’s right hand. I wouldn’t call it explosive power, but it did the job. Joyce needs to make sure he throws his right hand with conviction, and that he puts his body behind his shots.
”I think It’s a great fight,” Haye said of Joyce vs. Chisora. ”Me and Eddie have agreed to a nice purse for Chisora. He said if the money is right, the money is right. No more excuses. His management has advised him to take the fight. There are no other fights for him to take. Let’s hope that Chisora sees the light, and comes for a good fight on May 5th. I’m really looking forward to Joe Joyce and Dereck Chisora,” Haye said.
I think Chisora is getting cold feet at the idea of him fighting Joyce. If his career wasn’t on the verge of imploding, I think he would take the fight against Joyce in a second, but he’s been beaten 3 times in just 2 years. Granted, Chisora’s loss to Dillian Whyte in 2016 was a robbery of the first order, but he clearly lost to Agit Kabayel and Pulev. Of those two, Chisora could have beaten Kabayel if he wasn’t so lazy. Chisora fought like he was carefree, and didn’t want to put out any effort. Kabayel didn’t have much talent, but he made up for it by the effort that he put in.
If Chisora had fought harder, he’d have beaten Kabayel. There’s not much Chisora could do about his fight against Whyte. That was more of a judging thing. My point though is Chisora is now in the position where can’t afford another loss on his career, and I think that’s why he’s not agreeing to take the Joyce fight. Chisora still might take it if Haye sweetens the offer a bit, but I don’t know if he will enough for him Dereck to give the green light. If Chisora believes he can’t win against Joyce, then I don’t think he’ll agree to taking the fight no matter how much money is offered to him. I don’t see Takam being a winnable fight for Chisora either, so I’m not sure what he sees in him that makes him want to take that fight. Takam is a pretty good fighter with more speed and power than Chisora, and a much higher work rate.
”I think that they’ll really gel,” Haye said of Chisora vs. Joyce on May 5. ”I think that fight could be as exciting as when Chisora fought Dillian Whyte. It’s that type of clash with two fighters really going at it. I think it could be a really great pay-per-view fight,” Haye said.
I don’t think Joyce vs. Chisora is a “great pay-per-view fight” as Haye says it will be. It’s a decent fight, but not a great one. A much better fight would be Joyce against Takam or Breazeale. Those guys would come to fight, and they wouldn’t be lazy like we sometimes see from Chisora.
Breazeale vs. Joyce would be a rock em sockem type of fight. I doubt that Haye could get Breazeale to agree to a fight against Joyce, because he’s ranked high with the World Boxing Council at No.2. Breazeale will be getting a title shot against WBC champion Deontay Wilder soon, so he doesn’t need to take any risks with his career by fighting someone like Joyce in front of his British boxing fans in London. There was a time in Chisora’s career when he could have given Joyce a good fight, but that was years ago and not now. Unfortunately, Chisora is starting to look like a played-out fighter that is no longer capable of putting out enough effort to beat the top guys anymore.
”Dereck, you shook his hand. I know you’re a man of your word. I respect you,” Haye said in sending Chisora a direct message for him to take the Joyce fight. ”I’ve shared the ring with you. I know you’re a warrior. You’ve clashed with me, but you know we’ve got a young lad [Joyce]. He’s not that young. You’re only a couple of years older than him, but I believe my boy can beat you. I’m sure you and your coach and your team believe otherwise. Let’s make it happen. You’ll get more money than what you got for your European title fight, and way more than 5 of 6 times than you’ll get this Saturday. I know you’re going to turn up. So, I’ll see you on May 5th,” Haye said.
I’d be very surprised if Chisora agrees to taking the fight with Joyce. Unless the money is so good that it doesn’t matter if Chisora loses to Joyce, I don’t see him taking the match. Haye should move on and start looking at getting one of the top contenders in the heavyweight division to agree to the fight with Joyce. If that fails, then there’s always David Allen if his cut eye has healed enough for him to fight on May 5. Some of the other domestic level heavyweights would be good if they were willing to fight Joyce with just 2 months’ notice. It would be fun to see Joyce take on Hughie Fury or Adam Kownacki. Those guys would make it interesting, but those aren’t realistic options. Ultimately, I see Joyce facing another obscure 2nd tier fighter like his last two fights.
If Haye had tons of money to lure the top contenders over to England to face Joyce, then it would be a snap for him to get someone. Look at what Eddie Hearn did for Anthony Joshua. You can argue that Hearn bought Joyce a world title by luring former IBF paper champion Charles Martin over to England to make a voluntary defense against Joshua. I wish Haye a lot of luck trying to get a weak heavyweight champion like WBA belt holder Manuel Charr to come over to the UK for him to make a voluntary defense against Joyce. Hearn would likely easily afford it if he wanted to match Charr against Joshua, but I don’t see Joyce being in the same position.
