David Haye and Tyson Fury look set to announce a major British showdown between the pair pretty soon if what they are saying is anything to go by, but will the contest be as exciting as your casual fan will think?
Haye pulled out of his proposed fight with Manuel Charr last month citing a hand injury and several weeks later words began to air from both the Fury and Haye camp regarding a potential fight. Fury beat Steve Cunningham by knockout in April in New York after being floored in the second round. The fight was exciting for all seven rounds until Fury landed a controversial punch in the seventh when he appeared to position the American’s head into a right hand which effectively ended the battle.
Haye has not fought since last year when he beat Dereck Chisora by a fifth round stoppage after their tiff at at the post fight press conference between Chisora and Vitali Klitschko. Chisora was fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world, wearing the colours of the British flag but sadly spoiled any chances of gaining admiration from fans after both fighter’s actions that saw Haye trainer Adam Booth receive a nasty gash to the head after being hit with a camera tripod. Chisora put in a gutsy display against Klitschko and gave him his toughest defense since the Ukrainian fought Lennox Lewis in 2003, but his efforts were overshadowed by the events that transpired later that evening that saw the challenger from Finchley, London lose his boxing license. Haye retired after being beaten by Wladimir Klitschko and so he could receive limited punishment.
Meanwhile, the 6’9 Fury from Cheshire had been knuckling down and focusing on his own efforts to gain a position to fight for world glory and Vinny Maddalone was the first opponent that is perhaps known to boxing purists around the world succumbed to Fury in the fifth in the later half of 2012. Kevin Johnson was up next. With a nickname of the ‘Kingpin’ you would expect him to have a style that would be reminiscent of a boxer that would be effective at coming forward and cutting the ring off to dish out punishment, but on the night of December 1st, 2012 Kevin’s performance was anything but that. Instead he fought the entire twelve rounds on his bike and not even looking to try and take the job in front of him seriously. It was as if he knew as soon as he got into the ring that it was impossible for him to overcome the obstacle that stood before him. Fury, himself, never applied sustained pressure and looked content to get rounds under his belt. He won by a unanimous decision over twelve rounds in Belfast which ultimately lead to his chance of fighting in ‘The Big Apple’ against Cunningham.
Anybody who knows boxing and has followed both fighter’s relatively close should come to the logical conclusion that David Haye will have too much speed, power and skill for Tyson Fury. Nobody can say that the bigger guy lacks heart because he has that in bundles. But sometimes you need other attributes to go with that and being put down by Cunningham, who is essentially a cruiserweight boxer, doesn’t look great for his fights ahead. Haye came up to the heavyweight division from cruiserweight but he has demonstrated his power is effective at the weight by knocking out the granite chinned Chisora and rocked the giant Nikolai Valuev. His knockout win over John Ruiz is nothing to sniff at, either.
I struggle to see what reward there is for Fury for this fight. He pulled out of an IBF eliminator against Kubrat Pulev just as the talks of a Haye fight were looming and one does not see what he can gain. The only thing I can think of is that it is about money, something that Fury stated boldly that he has no interest in at the press conference ahead of his fight with Dereck Chisora. Perhaps that fight with Cunningham has knocked some sense into him in that he finally believes that he just does not have the ability to win a world title and that he is cashing out now. For Haye, if (more like when) he beats Fury then he gets the chance to steal his ranking and gain a valuable position once again to possibly fight Wladimir Klitschko. Haye has expressed interest in a rematch after his disappointing performance in 2011 and I am sure he would love another chance to set the record straight.
Predictions have already been made that the press conferences and general build up to a Haye v Fury showdown will be more entertaining than the fight itself and I am inclined to agree. Both are not shy of saying a controversial and provocative word or two and the war of words would be competitive and could very well make for some classic moments in the sport.
But as for their physical altercation, I see a super easy win by Haye. Early. Very early. And once again the fans will go home, and the realisation will set in very quickly that Haye vs Fury meant nothing more to boxing than a huge pay day for the two boxers, who will do nothing but laugh all the way to the bank.
