There are David Haye critics out there who claim the former WBA heavyweight champ has done his fans a disservice by not following up on his verbal agreement to face veteran Shannon Briggs in his next fight, one we thought might happen this past September. The ever-vocal Briggs, who plagued Haye with his “Let’s go Champ” war-cry and by travelling over to London, was “rewarded” with a fight on Haye’s May under-card.
The verbal agreement was that Briggs would get the Haye fight next if he won, which he did. But since then, nothing. Haye, who says he actually likes the talk that suggests he is “running scared” from Briggs, has explained his situation to IFL TV.
“Because the fight can’t happen on pay-per-view,” Haye said. “Shannon Briggs for all his screaming and shouting, which I actually like, I like him screaming and shouting because it hypes the fight. I like people thinking I’m running from him and ducking him because when I do get in the ring with him, which I really think I will do, I think it will make it a bigger fight. But at the moment the fight can’t happen because he will only fight me if the fight is on pay-per-view. I would fight him on [UK terrestrial channel] DAVE, but he doesn’t want to do that.”
Haye went on to say he “understands” why Briggs wants the fight to be on pay-per-view as he wants to get paid “millions,” instead of “a couple of hundred thousand dollars.” Haye says Briggs will likely get “smashed to bits” if and when he fights him and that the 44-year-old might not be in any condition to ever fight against afterwards; hence the desire to get a big pay-per-view payday. Haye says that at the moment there is no pay-per-view platform available to a fight between he and Briggs.
It’s hard to argue with what Haye says. He is not running from Briggs, Briggs is running the fight towards pay-per-view. If the fight did go ahead on DAVE, it’s likely an audience of three or maybe four million would tune in. But does Briggs want the fight, or does he merely want the payday?
Let’s see if Briggs responds to what Haye has said.
