By Charles Brun: David Haye will need to get a top 15 ranking with the WBC to challenge heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. For Haye to get ranked in the top 15 by the World Boxing Council, he’s going to need to get back in the ring and beat a top-tier contender if he wants to challenge Fury as a voluntary challenger. That means no scrubs.
Unless Haye can talk Fury into fighting him in an exhibition match, the ‘Hayemaker’ will need to get a top 15 ranking with the WBC to challenge Fury for his belt. I doubt Fury will want to fight an exhibition match against Haye, but you never know.
Fury was talking glowingly about exhibition matches and YouTubers the other day, and he seems to like what’s going on with the circus events watering down the sport.
Is Haye willing to take on a top 15 contender?
I hate to say it, but the WBC isn’t going to give Haye a top 15 ranking on a silver platter for beating his good buddy Joe Fournier last Saturday.
The 40-year-old Haye’s dull eight round unanimous decision victory over 38-year-old businessman Fournier last Saturday night in Hollywood, Florida, will probably not be good enough for him to get ranked in the top 15 with the WBC.
What Haye needs is a win over one or two of these fighters to get ranked in the top 15 with the WBC:
- Luis Ortiz
- Joseph Parker
- Michael Hunter
- Agit Kabayel
- Efe Ajagba
- Arslanbek Makhmudov
- Dereck Chisora
- Martin Bakole
- Charles Martin
Knowing Haye, he’ll likely go for the weakest link among the WBC’s top 15 contenders by choosing the shot to pieces Derek Chisora or the light-hitting Agit Kabayel to try and get ranked with the World Boxing Council.
Chisora is ranked #13 WBC, while Kabayel is rated #9. Those are fighters that Haye could potentially beat, even now at 40, but he would need to get through the fight without blowing out an Achilles, bicep, or shoulder.
We saw Haye take easy marks in the past to get ranked when he was out of the ring from 2012 to 2016. When Haye returned, he fought fringe contenders Mark De Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj to get ranked.
At this point, Chisora and Kabayel are at the level of De Mori, and Gjergjaj was back in 2016, meaning Haye should be able to beat them if he’s ambitious enough to try and get a top 15 ranking with the WBC.
Haye says he knows how to beat Fury
“I know how to beat Tyson Fury. I really do,” said Haye to iFL TV. “I’m being deadly serious. I understand why he’s so effective, and no one else can see it. I’m good enough still to do it. I would have done it back in 2013. He knows it.”
Fury has a fight against Deontay Wilder on October 9th in Las Vegas, and if he wins that, he’s got to take care of his overdue title defense against his WBC mandatory Dillian Whyte.
It’s doubtful that the World Boxing Council will let Fury put Whyte on hold while he makes a voluntary defense against Haye or faces him in an exhibition match.
Of course, Fury could vacate his WBC title and then face Haye, but he’s probably not going to do that because he needs the belt for leverage to negotiate a better deal with IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua.
At this point in Haye’s life, he doesn’t appear to want to work hard for things like other fighters do. He thinks he can leapfrog over the other contenders to get an undeserving title shot against Fury.
If Haye gets his way, it sends a bad message to boxing fans and all the contenders who have been working hard.