As boxing fans are only painfully aware, the heavyweight division has been going through nothing but absolute turmoil these last few days/weeks: with troubled world champ Tyson Fury looking as though he may not even have a career to speak of unless he drastically cleans up his act, gets the help he so clearly needs and is given more breathing space than most would say he deserves from the various authorities of the sport…
And with WBC boss Deontay Wilder still out of action due to injury, and with Luis Ortiz, the man many fans point to as THE best big man fighting today, currently out on a limb, with no next fight to speak of, and on, and on, and on….
The sole active “world” heavyweight champion is IBF belt holder Anthony Joshua; and who knows, we could have a great, faith-restoring mega-fight between AJ and Wladimir Klitschko to look forward to later this year. But the division is in a mess today, as anyone without an axe to grind would agree. Bottom line: fans want good fights, they want a world champion they can all point to and they want action on a regular basis. Maybe Joshua, 17-0 and as ambitious as can be, will be the man to restore some, just some, of the glamour the heavyweight division once enjoyed, or maybe the Londoner will soon be exposed as relative hypejob. Only time will tell.
But while fans are killing time, hoping for some good heavyweight news (and we all wish Tyson Fury nothing but the best) there could be forthcoming salvation in the form of former WBA champ, and former undisputed cruiserweight king David Haye. Don’t hold your breath, but Haye, who last fought in May, and has seemingly “bottled it” on his verbally agreed fight with loony/promotional genius Shannon Briggs, has announced on Twitter how he will be back in action on December 10 and how we will all “be happy” once the opponent, set to be announced “soon,” is revealed.
Could it be that Haye has something up his sleeve that will indeed make us heavyweight lovers happy, maybe even excited? Who could it be that Haye – last seen smashing two overwhelmed foes to early defeat earlier this year – has in line to fight? Lucas Browne maybe? Ortiz? Who?
Alexander Povetkin and Bermane Stiverne are set to box for a version of the WBC belt to be fully decided only when Wilder is fully fit for combat, and the WBO title, still held (for now) by Fury, looks set to be contested by Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz, but what might happen to the WBA title? Has Haye had some advance good news that he will be soon fighting for this, his old belt (or will Browne fight Fres Oquendp for this honour)?
We just don’t know, but Haye has given us a teaser of good news. At this point, in what must be looked at as the worst for some time in heavyweight history, we will eagerly take, with both hands, the word of a man who has himself let us down on more than a few occasions.
Fans just want to see a good heavyweight scrap/battle/slugfest/war. But today, who can provide?