By Michael Collins: It’s kind of sad to see former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) still hanging around waiting and hoping that he’ll somehow get a big fight with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. It’s pretty clear that isn’t going to happen, and he’s just wasting his time talking about the fight all the time when the signs are pretty clear that there’s just no interest from Vitali’s side.
With all this wasted time by Haye, he could be fighting four times a year and making the money that he would have received in a fight with Vitali. It might take Haye two fights to get what he would have gotten in one against Vitali, but who cares?
It’s not as if Haye will need to take on anyone good in order to make good money in the UK. Haye could essentially do what UK heavyweights David Price and Tyson Fury have been doing by taking on old guys like Martin Rogan, Matt Skelton, Audley Harrison, and Vinny Maddalone , and Haye would do really well. I think it would be more admirable for Haye to stand up on his hind legs and take on Price and Fury, so he can prove that he’s the best fighter in the UK.
A fight against one of those guys would make a lot of money for Haye, and he wouldn’t need Vitali. Of course, there wouldn’t be the built in excuse for Haye if he was to lose to one of them like there would be against the much more accomplished and better known Vitali, but why should Haye care about excuses?
If the money is the thing then he should go ahead and fight stay busy fights and entertain the boxing public in the UK. He’d do really well and British boxing fans would still pay to see him even if he’s not facing a star like Vitali. It’s better than just sitting around and wasting time hoping that Vitali will someday fight him. It’s painfully obvious that Vitali probably won’t fight him. It’s possible but I think if there was some interest from Vitali’s side he’d have already made the fight.
Under the best circumstances, Haye could have fought four times in 2011 and another four times in 2012. Instead, Haye fought only once in 2011 and once in 2012. He missed out on six entire fights. Assuming that Haye could make somewhere along the lines of $5 million per fight facing scrubs, he lost a lot of money just by not fighting four times per year. Who needs Vitali if he can make big cash facing other competition?