Fight Club: David Haye can muscle in at the top again

Charlie Naismith 06:34 18/01/2016
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  • Bulked up: David Haye.

    If David Haye needed any extra motivation upon his victorious return to the ring then it swiftly arrived from across the Atlantic in the small hours of the morning following his first round demolition of Mark de Mori.

    Having brutally knocked out his Australian opponent in just 124 seconds at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday night, Haye was granted an immediate opportunity to size up the competition when two versions of the heavyweight title were contested just a few hours later in New York.

    And the former WBA champion, now 35 and back in boxing after three-and-a-half years out, should be more convinced than ever he can get back on top.

    WBC title holder Deontay Wilder matched Haye in producing a highlight reel knockout, but for nine rounds up until that point had looked flawed and eminently beatable as he struggled with Poland’s Artur Szpilka, a blown up cruiserweight who wouldn’t trouble anybody’s top 10 at the heavier mark.

    Earlier in the night a new IBF champion had been crowned as underwhelming American Charles Martin benefitted from a knee injury to Vyacheslav Glazkov to claim the gold. Yet even in the three rounds that lasted, Martin looked anything but a top contender. Haye might just be thinking he has timed this comeback to perfection.

    Of course, the true heavyweight champion is his fellow Brit Tyson Fury, who could be found mindlessly taunting Wilder postfight with an absurd display of WWE-style flouncing.

    Fury is the man after beating the man, his dethroning of Wladimir Klitschko installing him as the undisputed No. 1 in the division. And while Haye is convinced the bitterness between him and Fury precludes a shot as long as the latter is on top, events in New York showed there are alternative routes.

    As for his own performance, it is difficult to learn a great deal from a one-sided beatdown inflicted on a fighter so hopelessly out of his depth that he really had no business being in the ring with a man as dangerous as Haye.

    But what was clear is that this is a physically bigger version of the Londoner, who came in at a career high 16st 3lb 5oz, and as De Mori’s treatment for concussion proves, the huge KO power is very much still there.

    What’s also obvious is that Haye is still popular. The 16,000-plus crowd inside the O2 dwarfed the turnout across the Pond.

    “I’m a bigger version, a bigger, stronger version, with more experience,” Haye said after his first win since knocking out Dereck Chisora in July 2012. “I’m not rushing my punches now, I can be patient, and not worried about what’s coming at me because we’ve been working on technique. I felt really comfortable in there.”

    If there was a negative, it was that Haye’s previously electric speed looked to have dropped off. But despite ring-rust or his inflated physique being obvious explanations, he was quick to deny he’d lost any of his snap.

    Who next for Haye?

    • Chris Arreola: Rumours persist that Haye will sign with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. Arreola is on their roster and would be the perfect second fight on the comeback trail.
    • Lucas Browne: Promoted by Ricky Hatton and ranked second by the WBA. If he gets past Ruslan Chagaev he may risk ranking for a big payday v Haye.
    • Dillian Whyte: He gave a good account of himself against Anthony Joshua and a big win for Haye would enhance his chances of landing a fight with AJ for himself.

    “I didn’t feel slow at all, I didn’t feel there was any shot I wanted to land that I couldn’t land,” he said. “My speed doesn’t feel any slower at all, it feels better.

    “It’s very satisfying (to finish De Mori like that). Because as much as I believed I could do it, I didn’t know: I’d never spent three-and-a-half-years out of the ring.”

    Perhaps most pleasing for Haye, though, was that his surgically reconstructed shoulder stood up to the test.

    “I’d had training camps but I didn’t get in the ring and fight,” he continued. “People kept saying ‘you’re ring-rusty, your shoulder’s going to fall out of its socket, this, that, and the other’.

    “Although I knew what happened was going to happen, I was expecting it to be a tough fight, and expecting maybe to be missing punches from time to time, so I’d mentally prepared to have a hard, tough fight, because this guy’s been fighting regularly.”

    And fighting regularly is now the key for Haye as he looks to muscle in on a heavyweight division coming alive but perhaps still lacking in genuine world-class talent.

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