David Haye is serious about fighting heavyweight rival Tyson Fury
Outspoken David Haye is very engaging and has a knack for making you believe what he's saying, no matter how ludicrous or unfathomable. That’s the beauty of having the gift of the gab and you'd have thought that it was a skill that would stand him in good stead in his second act as a promoter. However, the 40-year-old has decided to put his energy into a return to the ring after sensationally calling out Tyson Fury.
It's hard to know what to make of Haye’s challenge when you consider that the boxing odds from Betfair show Tyson Fury as the favorite to become the world heavyweight champion, having been priced at just 4/7 to beat the dangerous Anthony Joshua. In other words, Haye has no business picking a fight with Fury and would have to join the back of a very long queue should he want to make it happen.
To reinforce the point, punters just need to look at the latest boxing betting tips to see how heavily backed Fury is to win all of his upcoming world title bouts. At the end of the day, UK fight fans will know that Fury believes it is his destiny to sit at the summit of world boxing and prove that he is the greatest of all time, and to do that, he doesn't have to fight a 40-year-old Haye.
With this in mind, you do wonder if Haye is trying to generate as much publicity as possible or if he's in fact serious about taking on the lineal heavyweight champion of the world. In the event that it's the latter, let's take a look at what might happen.
@TheMacLife: "David Haye wants his shot at the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury. The two were meant to fight years ago, but the Hayemaker needed to pull out injured — now, he's back."
Indeed, as for the potential outcome, should this bizarre match-up go ahead, it should be said that Fury is in the prime of his career after becoming the WBC champion. Furthermore, the 33-year-old has seven years on Haye and has remained active since coming back into the ring in 2018 after some time away from the sport. Whichever way you choose to look at it, it seems a foregone conclusion that Fury would dance around the aging Haye and deliver a win inside six rounds.
That would probably be the best-case scenario for Haye, but he may insist on the bout being shortened to anywhere between five and eight rounds in a bid to give him the best possible chance of an upset. Indeed, Haye’s team is likely to follow the blueprint of the celebrity fights that have taken place between YouTubers and sports stars where a truncated match is arranged in order to provide the best spectacle.
Haye, however, won’t have any leverage or room to be demanding and would, in all likelihood, be told he would have to go 12 rounds with Fury if he wants this fight to happen. Additionally, his two defeats before he retired against the far less talented Tony Bellew showed that his legs weren't up to going past five rounds.
@SkySportsBoxing: "On This Day @TonyBellew v @mrdavidhaye – The Rematch 2 years ago Tony Bellew stopped David Haye in their second fight"
Having weighed all of this up, if you’re at the point of the article where you have decided that Haye’s claim to fight Fury is laughable then you aren’t alone. The long and short of it is that it simply won’t happen.
Essentially what we’re witnessing is Haye trying to latch onto the outlandish fight bandwagon in an attempt to earn himself a piece of the very lucrative pie. The 40-year-old may still be able to do that, but it won’t be against arguably the best boxer on the planet during the prime of his career.