David Haye believes he’ll be one of the heavyweight world champions by 2017. Haye, 35, isn’t sure which of the current heavyweight world champions he’ll be defeating to become a champion. It’s going to be tough no matter which of the champions he faces because they all have a considerable size advantage over him.
Haye is two fights into his comeback to the sport after missing four years due to nagging injury problems. Thus far, Haye has avoided any injuries since his comeback, but he’s also not faced anyone that could give him potential problems.
“I’m working on this next fight,” said Haye to the mirror. “I want it to be a substantial fight, a fight that gets people excited. It’s a good time to be in the heavyweight division in the UK.
Haye, ranked #3 IBF, #4 WBO, #5 WBA, #6 WBC, was supposed to be fighting 44-year-old Shannon Briggs for his next fight in September, but it’s now unclear whether that fight will be taking place or not. Briggs was supposed to have had a deal that if he fought on Haye’s undercard of his last fight against Arnold Gjergjaj last May that he would get a fight against Haye. However, it’s unknown whether that fight will take place or not. I guess if Haye doesn’t fight Briggs, then he can’t expect the American to fight on anymore of his undercards to help sell tickets.
“We’re spoilt for choice,” said Haye about the options of fighting for a world title against IBF champion Anthony Joshua or IBO/WBA/WBO champion Tyson Fury. “But now we’ve got two current heavyweight champions, possibly three, if I can get a world title fight. It’s a situation that’s never happened before. I believe within a year I’ll have a version of a title, whether that’s against Anthony Joshua, against the winner of Tyson Fury’s rematch against Wladimir Klitschko, or against Deontay Wilder.”
Haye could speed up the process of him getting a title shot if he started beating quality contenders instead of focusing exclusively on facing unknown fringe contenders like Mark De Mori and Gjergjaj. Haye has taken a very careful approach by fighting guys that arguably didn’t deserve being ranked in the top 15 in the first place. But if Haye wants to fight Joshua, Deontay Wilder or Fury for their belts, he’s going to need to fight someone good and beat them so that he can get pushed up the rankings to the No.1 spot.
Haye is too good for him to get a title shot from a champion making a voluntary defense. Haye is the type of fighter who will likely only get a world title shot if he’s the mandatory challenger, To earn the No.1 spot it takes time to get to that position. Haye needs to try and pick off one of the good contenders so that he’s pushed to No.1 immediately. It’s doubtful that Haye will do that because he seems to be unwilling to take any risks until he gets a title shot against one of the champions.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn is obviously waiting for the fight against Haye to be built up properly. He can’t do that with Haye fighting fluff opponents over and over again. Even if Haye fights Briggs and beats him, he still won’t have faced anyone good. Briggs was a good but flawed heavyweight in the 1990s, but he’s done zero other than his come from behind 12th round knockout win over former WBO heavyweight champion Sergey Liakhovich nine years ago in 2007.
It was a good win for Briggs, but he lost his next fight against Sultan Ibragimov in June 2007. It won’t mean much if Haye beats Briggs. He needs to step it up a couple of levels against some of the more talented and younger heavyweights like Bermane Stiverne or Kubrat Pulev. I don’t think for a second that Haye will have anything to do with those heavyweights because those would be major tests for him that he could very well lose.
Haye stepped it up in the past in challenging Wladimir Klitschko for his title five years ago in losing a one-sided 12 round decision. That was Haye’s one and only tough fight opponent since he moved up to the heavyweight division in 2008.
