David Haye is launching his comeback next month in an eight-round professionally sanctioned fight against Joe Fournier on Oscar De La Hoya’s undercard on September 11th on Triller PPV at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Adding Haye to the card will help entice some reluctant boxing fans to purchase the event, as many of them were ambivalent about watching the 50-ish De La Hoya battle an old MMA guy in Vitor Belfort.
Haye is easily the most entertaining fighter on the September 11th card by far, but his opponent Fournier leaves a lot to be desired. It’s too bad a known former boxer wasn’t found for Haye to fight instead of Fournier.
The particulars about Haye’s fight with Fournier:
- 8 three-minute rounds
- Sanctioned as a real professional fight, NOT an exhibition
- At heavyweight
The 40-year-old Haye’s fight is part of a stacked card, filled with older retired MMA fighters and former five-division world champion De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) headlining against 44-year-old Vitor Belfort.
With how older fighters are coming out of retirement left and right to take advantage of the fan interest in seeing famous old guys battle, it’s a surprise that it’s taken Haye this long to return to the ring finally.
You would think that Haye would have made a move to come out of retirement a year ago to help himself to some of the easy dough.
Compared to some of the fighters on the card, Haye is a relative spring chicken at 40. It’s not so much the age that is the worrisome thing with Haye. It’s the way he blows out biceps, shoulders, suffers cuts, and hand problems. If Haye doesn’t have an injury during training camp or the fight, he’ll make easy work of the 38-year-old Fournier, who isn’t a major talent.
I mean, there are some really ancient fighters like 48-year-old De La Hoya, 46-year-old Anderson Silva, 46-year-old Tito Ortiz, and the aforementioned 44-year-old Belfort. What a card!
Hopefully, there will be a good medical team ready in case one of them suffers an injury.
Haye (28-4, 26 KOs) was a good fighter during his 16-year professional career, but unfortunately, the injuries eventually led to him calling it quits after his second loss to Tony Bellew in 2018.
Although Haye still had hand speed and major power at the end of his career, he couldn’t stay healthy long enough to take advantage of his physical tools.
If Haye blows out Fournier, which is very likely, we could see him in potentially interesting fights. Who wouldn’t want to see Haye take on a guy like Andy Ruiz Jr, Deontay Wilder, or Anthony Joshua. Those would be dream fights for Haye to get a little coin before he disappears into retirement again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooYCk4FUn-Y
Triller’s September 11th PPV card:
- Oscar De La Hoya vs. Vitor Belfort – headliner
- Anderson Silva vs. Tito Ortiz – chief support
- David Haye vs Joe Fournier
- Andy Vences vs Jono Carroll