DAVID HAYE to his supporters: "I'll be heavyweight champion of the world once again"

Having the guts to fight on with an injury (and lose!) against Tony Bellew is a far cry from winning the heavyweight championship.

Most fighters want to be world champion, that doesn't mean everyone should take them seriously as contenders, does it ?

Haye's allowed to delude himself certainly. There are far worse cases than him out there. You don't get anywhere without dreams and goals. But I don't know why he has so many supporters who are happy to delude themselves along with him.
If he was going to do INCREDIBLE THINGS at this stage of the game, surely he would have done something incredible against Wlad back in the day ... or against Bellew a couple of weeks ago, for that matter !

Even back in his prime, he barely won a title from Valuev ! And, from where I'm sitting, none of the current or possible champions these days look anywhere near as bad as Valuev !
The title-holders are better. Haye is worse. It's just not happening.

 

When I say taken seriously I mean in terms of believing he is being honest about at least trying to reach his goal. I think he will try to make a point. As for him actually being able to do it, I agree it's a long shot. His heavyweight career is a bit of a joke, I never rated the valuev fight, all they show is that one big punch he landed, nothing else happened. And after wlad that was it, I had no belief in haye.

What I did like was the chisora fight, he destroyed the man, a tough durable heavyweight. Going by that he looked like he could do some damage. But then it all went south.

So I am not convinced he can do it, but maybe I am a sucker for believing him when he says he will try to. He showed a bit of heart against bellew so maybe there is a bit more to him than we thought. Maybe not but we will find out, so I won't write him off completely until then.

 

Totally possible he could capture the Regular WBA strap if he can get healthy but anything more would be a stretch.

 

Fair enough.
For Haye's sake, I hope he's not completely serious. I hope he's more realistic.
It would be better for him if he's just looking for one more big "cash out" fight rather than become another Price/Audley type figure on a never-ending unrealistic mission.

 

Well of course he can win a title, but is that his real goal?

If he wanted purely a title, he could have taken up on his position as the mando for the winner of the Parker v Ruiz jr fight. Sure that would probably only net him £2mill rather than the £4.5 mill + his promoter income he got from the Bellew fight, but it would still be a nice wedge.

His route to a title now is narrowing, as is his time frame to do it. The logical fight for him is a a second fight against Bellew then a final part of the trilogy after he wins the rematch. Those fights would net him a total of around £8 million, which is a nice payday by any standards. That, along with his recovery from injury, would likely tie him up for 18 months. After that he could get a shot against AJ, if indeed AJ is still a champ and relevant.

The most important part of the jigsaw though is despite what he may want to do and what he says, Haye just will not know whether his achilles is back to 'normal' for several months yet.

 

Even before the injury took place he looked slow, wide with his shots, his reflexes and loose fluid defence was gone. Like Haye had a style where it doesn't age as well as someone like Wladimir. David relies on his athletic abillties more so then raw skill so I don't think we will see him again at a top level.

 

That's correct. He's shown us absolutely nothing since 2012. He's been plagued by injuries (including "career ending" injury) ever since, and throughout his career really. He's past it, and was never good enough back in the day anyway.

 

I couldn't imagine that, unless he is so desperate and delusional that he would put his health on the line again and again. He always seemed pretty calculating with his opponents, probably part of why his heavyweight career has seemed like a con, he only fought a couple of opponents that seemed dangerous, he picked easy options for big rewards it seemed. I think it will carry on like that in an effort to perverse his injury prone body but I still wonder what he can actuality do, even with best intentions.

This reminds me a bit of Tyson's final comeback. When Mike said he had trained well and was serious I never believed him after the Holyfield fights, he was just milking his image. But when he got involved with Roach at the very end there I am convinced Tyson actually wanted to give it a good go, he sounded energised, he seemed to be training well and actually looked good in a few rounds against Danny Williams, the best he looked in years, but his body broke down. maybe he thought he would give it his all just one last time and prove something legacy wise, but it was all too late. I think thats what will probably happen with Haye, his ego probably wants to get in there and prove he is better than those guys but his body will probably fail him.

 

Sometimes they are just addicted to the limelight and the attention.
20 years ago, if someone had correctly predicted what would become of Roy Jones Jr. , I certainly would have laughed in disbelief. He was the last fighter in the world I'd think it possible.

David Haye has already changed his tune several times.
"Definitely retired" at 31 years old, as he always said he would from day one.
".... unless .... just one more fight with Vitali."
".... I'm still retired, but back only because Dereck Chisora deserves a beating"
...... etc. etc. ....
"I'm coming back !" ........
"Retired for good now. Career ending injuries" .... etc. etc.
..... and that lot only takes us up to early 2014.

Three years and several episodes later (and 5 1/2 years AFTER his retirement age deadline) and it's yet another promised comeback.

 

yeah it definitely can happen, he is treading that pattern of coming in and out of boxing. Jones is a horrible case, its unbelievable really that he has ended up with those loses.
I just don't know if Haye has that deluded quality yet, to the point he would repeatedly come back after getting sparked. His last fight he had a real excuse for losing, we dont really know how he would react to getting a proper beat down at this stage in his career?
I lean towards him calling it quits at the moment, I think some fighters put fighting on before their ego or fear of losing, willing to take the risk of taking a humiliating loss for the glory, I think Haye's inflated ego would be too big to keep taking loses. but then again it seems the huge ego of a fighter urges them to continue so am confused now...

 

Yeah, we just don't know as of now. He's kind of in "no man's land" at the moment. I think he's well past it but it certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to at least try for a trilogy with Bellew, perhaps even a minor 'world' title fight (Briggs/Oquendo !!!). That's fine. He's not beyond salvaging something.

Yes, the problem is usually the ego.
And a big problem with that is that when they start losing to "inferior" fighters, especially when they have injuries, they feel they have even more to prove, to show that they are in fact still better than the last result indicates, and it becomes a downward spiral.
In a way it would be better to go out of a quick crushing defeat to someone really good, but Haye doesn't deserve such a fight.
Perhaps a second loss to Bellew would be a blessing in disguise too.

 

I don't agree with many of your posts, I am sure that doesn't bother you either.

However this one is pretty solid and close to the mark. Fair do's.

 

Its a shame for Haye really because his legacy isnt exactly up there with the greats, its like the time has passed when he had that chance. If he beat Fury and won a few more significant fights he could have had a much better legacy so he might be chasing something he failed to achieve. I pretty much agree with the injury issue though, it does seem a stretch he could even make a full training camp. I'm convinced this is a reason Booth isnt with him now, he knows its over. I hope that isnt the case but it seems to be an uphill battle.

yeah a Bellew fight would probably be the best case scenario to see where he is, at least he wont get a concussive KO. I think he will be clever about where he goes from there, you would hope. I never been Hayes biggest fan really, some of the stuff he has done has been an embarrassment but I like the fact he showed some heart against Bellew. some say its an act but you dont act trying to fight on one leg for 5 rounds whilst someone is trying to KO you, he earned a bit of a bravery badge there so I personally hope it doesn't end in disaster for him.

 

Hate showed a little character on carrying on against Bellew. However look at this way, he only lasted another 5 rounds because it was Tony Bellew, every top ten heavyweight and the top cruisers would have put him away within no more than 2 rounds after the injury.

 

Injuries aside, Haye's problems he really brought on himself.
He was acting like a Mayweather-esque type character way before he'd earned it. By that, I mean he was acting so superior to other heavyweights and hoping his "star power" could dictate events and push him into major fights. But actually, after the Wladimir fight that was all just in his mind, it didn't quite conform to reality. He remained a reasonably big potential draw but nowhere near big enough to go full-Diva style.
He wasted time pretending to be retired or fooling himself into thinking the Klitschkos would be interested in giving him another chance on decent terms.
Really he should have been quietly working away in the gym or rehabbing his injuries and taking advantage of his prime years. He could have followed the Chisora fight up with something meaningful over similar opposition for a while. Instead he pretended to be retired again, and when he eventually lined up the Fury fight he acted like it was "beneath him" to be fighting a man like Fury, which was proven absurd two years later when Fury became champion.

He's a good example of the old saying : "BE CAREFUL HOW YOU TREAT PEOPLE ON YOUR WAY UP ... BECAUSE YOU'LL BE SEEING THEM ALL AGAIN ON YOUR WAY DOWN"
He made a lot of enemies in the business. He's not the Mayweather-style promoter-fighter-Diva he perhaps wished to be. He's just a guy begging Tony Bellew for a rematch.