04.07.08 – by James Slater: David Haye, a fighter who is seemingly in the news almost constantly these days, hasn’t even made his fulltime move up to heavyweight yet. But the former cruiserweight king is already making plans for what he will do once his boxing career is over. Speaking to Fighters Only Magazine recently, “The Hayemaker” was absolutely serious when he said he’d make the move to MMA as soon as he has achieved all he wants to in boxing..
“Once my boxing career is over with, in two or three years, MMA is definitely something I’ll look to jump into with both hands and feet,” Haye told Fighters Only. “I’ve already got a grounding in the sport and have been working on the foundations for around six years now. The kickboxing side of things comes fairly naturally to me as I did kickboxing before boxing.”
No doubt a number of people reading Haye’s comments regarding his desire to go into MMA will take the news with a pinch of salt. After all, if Haye was to hang up his boxing gloves at age 30 (he is 27 now) and then go into MMA, he would be pretty old to be taking up the sport as a new. Looking too far ahead could also prove to be problematic for Haye. Let him actually get something done up at heavyweight before he discusses what he will do afterwards.
Haye made it clear, however, that if he were to make the move he would have to do so wholeheartedly. And despite how many people will quite justifiably feel the urge to dismiss Haye’s talk as something of a joke, the fighter did seem ultra-serious.
“You can’t make the jump between two sports half-heartedly,” Haye went on. “I wouldn’t do a Ray Mercer and just turn up for a pay check. I would take the same attitude I have for boxing into The Octagon. If I were going to do it, I’d want to do it properly and win everything in sight. I wouldn’t go in there blind and make a fool of myself like some other boxers do. I’d only do it if I was confident of becoming the best on the world.”
Haye also stated how he believes the threat MMA has become to boxing has made his current sport put on better fights so as to compete. Haye has a point there, but can the man who says he will clean up the heavyweight division as soon as he’s given the opportunity really go on to make a name for himself in another combat sport as well?
It’s hard to frown on Haye’s massive ambition, but perhaps he should first be concentrating on his immediate future – and his heavyweight re-debut, whoever it will come against, this October.