by James Slater – David Haye has been talking again. Speaking exclusively with Setanta Sports, who will be showing his next fight live, “The Hayemaker” has said he will be “one of the best conditioned heavyweights you’ll have ever seen” when he gets in the ring in November. Haye also spoke about how he feels he will do against two of the current favourites to be meeting him on November 15th – James Toney and Hasim Rahman.
According to Setanta, fighters Vladimir Virches, Monte Barrett, Juan Carlos Gomez, Oleg Maskaev, Alexander Dimitrenko, Serguei Lyakhovich and Chris Arreola have been ruled out for one reason or another, and this leaves Rahman and Toney. Rahman is the frontrunner, but Haye spoke about how he’d do against both “Rock” and “Lights Out.”
“I think I’d knock him [Rahman] out,” Haye said. “Just like the rest of the heavyweight division. Over twelve rounds, sooner or later they’re going to get knocked out. They might have good spells. They might be able to take the initial onslaught, but sooner or later they’ll get broken down and knocked out.”
Haye then discussed James Toney, a fighter he reportedly has respect for.
“The only problem with James Toney, is, I’ve looked at his record on BoxRec and he’s only won one of his last six fights,” Haye said. “He got disqualified for [taking] steroids, he drew with Hasim Rahman and lost to Samuel Peter twice. [The last fight] was a no-decision, I thought he lost the first two rounds then he won the third, then Rahman got cut. It would be an interesting fight. He’s [Toney] deceiving. He fights a lot better than he looks. If you look at him, you think he’s just a pumped-up fat middleweight, but he’s got a lot of skills. I definitely think I’d stop him late or win a big decision on points.”
Haye clearly rates Toney over Rahman, yet it does seem the 35-year-old Rahman will be getting the fight. He’s been the favourite to land the match for some time now, and, as Haye said, he would be a lot easier to KO than would Toney. Setanta sports conducted a poll, and when the votes were in Toney was the winner when it comes to who the fans want to see Haye fight in November. Who knows, maybe “Lights Out” will get the call after all. I’m sure James would jump at the chance.
The word is, the official announcement for Haye’s next fight/opponent will take place in mid-September. It’s been a long time coming!