David Haye: Heavyweight Heir Apparent?
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Is David ‘Haymaker’ Haye the answer to the heavyweight division? He seems to think so and he’s not alone. In the cruiserweight division Haye has held the WBC, WBO and WBA titles. If you’ve seen him fight, you would know he’s no crumb. I saw him fight recently for the first time and I was blown away. He possesses great speed and accuracy for a man his size, plus he can pack a punch.
With a record of 21-1-20 one has to be impressed or at least interested. I have heard Haye’s chin come into question on more than one occasion. Carl Thompson (33-6-25) did give him that single loss and it was by KO. But for those that saw it say that Haye’s corner threw in the towel because he was over matched. To Haye’s credit, he was 10-0 and only two years into his professional career.
In his amateur career Haye was very successful. In 1999 Haye fought in the World Amateur Championships in Houston, Texas for the light heavyweight division. Unfortunately, he lost early in the tournament to Michael Simms from the United States. In 2001 he again fought in the World Amateur Championship in Belfast, Ireland. This time it was the heavyweight division and he beat Sebastian Kober for a shot in the finals. Alas, he was stopped by Odlainer Solis from Cuba in the third round right after giving Solis a standing eight count. Talk about a roller coaster ride! Haye received the silver medal for his efforts.
In November of 2007, Haye and Jean-Marc Mormeck battled it out for the WBC and WBA Cruiserweight titles. Haye was down in the 4th but came back to stop Mormeck in round 7. Most recently in 2008, Haye disemboweled Enzo Maccarinelli in two rounds. The Big Macca woke up on the corner of Queer street in Beat Down city. That’s the fight I saw and Haye was very reminiscent of Roy Jones Jr. The guy has talent, no doubt about it.
In April, Haye caught Vladimir Klitschko at a fund raiser and called him out. Haye feels he is a big threat to Vladimir and wants the fight to be made as soon as possible. Some feel Haye has to make a name for himself in the heavyweight division first, but Haye thinks his name is enough. He has already fought at that weight and feels the rest of the division is beneath him. He could be right and I’m very interested to see how it all pans out.
Below is the video footage of Haye and Vlad at said fund raiser.
Apparently, Haye told The Sun that: “Once my boxing career is over, in two or three years, MMA is definitely something I’ll look to jump into with both hands and feet. I’ve already got a grounding in the sport and have been working on the foundations for around six years. The kicking side of things comes fairly naturally to me as I did kickboxing before boxing.”
In a recent interview with Fighters Only Magazine Haye also had this to say: “You can’t make the jump between the two sports half-heartedly. I wouldn’t do a Ray Mercer and just turn up for a pay cheque. I would take the same attitude for boxing into the Octagon. If I were going to do it, I’d want to do it properly and win everything in sight. Money wouldn’t even be an issue – that’s the last thing I’d do it for. It would be all about the challenge. I wouldn’t go in there blind and make a fool of myself like some other boxers do. I’d only do it if I was confident of becoming the best in the world.”
Word on the street is Haye might face Monte Barrett (34-6-20) on this October 18th at the O2 Arena in London. There is also talk of a potential fight with Hasim Rahman, but the deciding factor is that Rahman had to overturn the decision which has recently happened.
James Toney was irate with Haye’s plan to make a fight with Rahman and had to following to say: “David Haye is a comedian. Is he scared of a old, fat, short guy? He’s done nothing to deserve a fight with Vlad. He won the cruiserweight titles from two bums, one old guy and one guy who can’t even fight in Maccarrinelli. And he thinks now he should get Klitschko? It’s ludicrous. Rahman is a joke. I beat him and I wasn’t even 100% yet. When I say I wasn’t 100%, my weight wasn’t back to where it was when I fought Holyfield. If he got the balls, let’s sign the contract and do this.”
“My record is proven. Come and try to beat me. All Golden Boy has to do is call Dan. As terrible as Klitschko is, he will beat Haye. Haye has no chin and no heart, he proved that against Carl Thompson years ago. Things don’t change. He’s a typical Euro British fighter. They get fed a bunch of bums and come over here and don’t want to fight a good fighter. I will destroy David Haye. He will never fight again. Everyone I fight, I ruin them. Even Monte Barrett will knock him out. He’s afraid of me. I’m the realest fighter in the game. I’m the only old school fighter left in the game, not Bernard Hopkins. Haye wants the easy road. After I beat Rahman, I knew they would go after him because he’s fragile. I took his spine and his heart in that fight.”
Stumble it!