Slim chance of David Haye v Audley Harrison
Now that the dust has settled on two triumphant nights for British heavyweight boxing, it might be worth having a look at what the future holds in the 200lbs division.
Arguably the most prestigious belt is the WBC, as it is the residue of the original single-belt championship, is currently the property of Vitali Klitschko. David Haye holds the WBA strap and Wladamair Klitschko has the rest of the ones that count - must be annoying having to put them on every morning. Meanwhile old-timer Evander Holyfield has the much-derided WBF title and Audley Harrison the European belt, which makes them both contenders.
Right now Haye is the hot property. He’s exciting to watch, marketable and charismatic and he has the Klitschko brothers falling over each other wanting to fight him. In recent days Wladimir has called out Haye with an arty black-and-white video posted on Facebook. Which is the traditional way for any boxer to call out another.
The thing is Haye has been calling out both Klitschkos for ages now anyway, so there was no need for the dramatics. They have had scheduled fights before, the one when Haye wore that infamous t-shirt and a proposed Haye-Vitali bout. Both fell through because of injury and other obligations, now Haye’s stock has risen so much the Klitschkos are clearly desperate for a piece of the action.
Unfortunately, nothing is ever that simple in boxing, Gordon Brown v David Cameron has less politics.
Haye v Klitschko is a dead cert but which one will he fight and when? Adam Booth, Haye’s trainer/manager has said that fans "aren't going to have to wait a lifetime" to see “The Hayemaker” take on Wladimir. However he also said that prior to the video, negotiations had been concerning Vitali.
Vitali in most people’s opinion is the big cheese; Wladimir is more a henchman, Vitali the boss. Also he looks like he might be retiring at the end of the year. It would seem that the end is nigh for their reign of terror and at the very minimum they are finally going to have a serious challenge on their hands. If Haye does beat a Klitschko then chances are that the other will come after him, like things used to go down on the school playground. It won’t matter to Haye, he will want to fight them both and hopefully we can get a two-fight Haye-Klitschko series.
You need a degree in quantum physics to work out what actually will happen though. Next up Vitali has Albert Sonowski, who was supposed to fight Harrison instead of Michael Sprott, Haye may have a contractual re-match against Nicolay Valuev and Wladimir is open to offers. While good-old “A-Force” has to fight Alexander Mimitrenko as a mandatory defence but said he would make himself available for a Klitschko and Holyfield will fight anybody who’s interested.
The Haye and Valuev re-match could be a stumbling block. Seeing as Haye’s aim is to unify the division, it would seem unlikely that he will vacate his belt, there are ways round that though. Vitali is indisposed for a few months and seeing as it was Wladimir who went all Martin Scorsese with his video that fights looks odds-on, despite the fact Haye has admitted he would prefer the WBC belt.
If Haye beats Wladimir, Vitali will be furious. With half an eye on retiring “Dr Ironfist” would relish the chance to go out with a victory over The Hayemaker. The Klitschko’s need to beat Haye to have a credible legacy and that fact is beginning to dawn on them.
Seeing as Vitali has a fight in May, he may be indisposed for a bit, which would fit in nicely with Harrison’s return from injury, as he ruptured his right pectoral in his fight against Sprott. Harrison v Klitschko, could you imagine? If he beats Dimitrenko he gets a title shot, but the Klitschkos are so desperate they may just skip him forward. Unbelievable really.
Harrison says he wants a Klitschko rather than Haye; however, you get a feeling what he really wants is to beat a Klitschko and then destroy Haye in front of all of Britain, thus proving everyone wrong as he triumphantly retires a hero. You can probably get any odds on that actually panning out, but imagine if it did.
Harrison went on record to say: "The history of British heavyweight boxing shows that the two heavyweights always collide at some point. Destiny is going to make me and David Haye fight.
"David Haye doesn't want to fight me,"
"I will go and win a world title and then we'll see how irrelevant Mr Audley Harrison is."
We will see Mr Audley Harrison, we will see. The chances of A-Force’s dream all-British fight on par with the likes of Frank Bruno v Lennox Lewis and Joe Bugner v Henry Cooper, is beyond slim. Especially seeing that the word from Booth in the Haye camp is that Harrison’s, “not on the radar”.
Don’t forget that Holyfield is also knocking about and his George Foreman-esque return to the ring is the sort of thing the papers love. Regardless of his ability he might get a crack at someone because it would make good copy.
So there we go, the heavyweight division has heated up. It’s only taken about seven years for anything vaguely interesting to happen. The most likely outcome is Haye v Wladimir then Vitali, while Harrison will either lose his mandatory or get battered by a Klitschko and Holyfield will get an eliminator re-match against Valuev or someone of that ilk.
Over the next year or so, legends are set to be made and hopefully we will see some classic fights.
That is unless something goes horribly wrong and we end up with Holyfield and Harrison battling out to become undisputed champion.
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