Briggs has a better resume than Haye

Especially if he beats Dimitrenko. Its really shameful that Briggs has to "earn" a shot against Haye when they have similar resumes, and neither has beaten a real contender in years.

Anyway, for resume:

1. Best HW win of career: Briggs controversially beat Foreman>Haye controversially beat Valuev.

2. Second best HW win of career: Briggs ko'd White Wolf to get a belt = or > Haye ko'd Chisora with no belt on the line

3. Third best win at HW: Briggs ko'd iron chinned but ancient Ray Mercer> Haye koing ancient Ruiz

4. Performances in losing efforts against ATG's: Briggs got an uncredited kd against Lennox Lewis, and was one of only 4 fighters to go the distance against Vitali>winning a couple rounds against Wlad in an atrocious snoozefest.

Briggs has an unquestionably better HW resume than Haye, you'd have to throw his cruiserweight reign in to even give put Haye in the ballpark for overall resume.

 

Fair enough, but he had a much larger body of work at HW against many more contenders, so he was bound to pick some up. And if you include cruiserweight for Haye, his worst loss, ko to Wilson isn't much worse than Haye's ko loss to Thompson. The only other bad loss on his resume is a MD loss to Sedrick Fields, who was a real tough journeyman.

 

You're missing the point, which is that Haye is massively overrated right now and isn't in a position to demand someone prove himself to him to earn a "shot" at him. We last knew where haye stood 3 years and 10 months ago, when he ko'd Chisora. He's a small HW who relies on speed, athleticism and power. Since Chisora, he's gained 15 pounds, aged over 4 year (by the time he faces someone semi legit), and had shoulder surgery. Things that, on paper, are more likely to affect him than other HW's. It's not clear at all where he is right now.

Adamek, Arreola, and Helenius were all ranked in the top 10 by ring when Haye last beat someone. It would be just as rational (arguably more so, in light of his style and injuries) to keep them ranked at that level if, instead of their deterioration being made apparent by getting beat or nearly beat by contenders, they just stopped fighting and came back years later beating low level guys like Haye is. But, unlike Haye, they kept fighting and were shown to have declined.

Chances are Haye is solidly better than Briggs right now. I'll even admit that at their peak levels, Haye was better than Briggs ever was H2H (thought not on resume). But there is not some huge gap that warrants a "prove it" fight for Briggs but not Haye. Briggs style, as a large SHW with great power, is less prone to aging badly than Haye's. I wouldn't be shocked if Briggs could pull off the upset.