by James Slater: With fans anxious to hear who the frustratingly inactive David Haye will fight next, and with no news at all coming from the Haye camp, all that is left to do is speculate on who the Londoner’s next challenger will be.
All hopes of Haye getting it on with a Klitschko are lost for this year, and a fight with fellow Brit Audley Harrison is something Haye himself has sneered at. A second fight with the man Haye took the WBA strap from, Nikolai Vaulev has, depressingly, been mentioned, but Valuev has also gone very quiet lately.
What wouldn’t surprise me, is the idea of Haye facing former champion Hasim Rahman being put out there. Would it come as a big shock to you if Team-Haye dropped a hint that “The Rock” might be Haye’s next opponent; so as to see what the fan reaction would be? And who knows, maybe there would be enough fans out there willing to buy such a match-up. I can see now the angle that would be used to promote the bout – “Rahman KO’d Lennox Lewis a few years ago, he still has that right hand. Can he take out the suspect-chinned Haye?”
It might not matter to the casual fan or the Haye fans who would be happy enough to simply have their hero fighting anyone, but the Rahman of today is nothing like the force he was when he iced Lewis. Now aged 37 and a lot heavier than he was in his biggest career win, Rahman has not won a truly meaningful fight in years. This fact probably wouldn’t stop the WBA from sanctioning a fight between he and Haye, however, and Rahman does have some name value even now.
And Rahamn has been winning recently, albeit against a low level calibre of opponent. In fact, Rahman won last night in Norfolk, Virginia. Stopping “Dangerous” Damon Reed in the 6th-round, a 254-pound Rahman started off slowly but then dropped Reed face-first in the 6th, winning at 2 mins and 20-seconds of the round. Now 3-0(3) in the comeback he began 15 months after his one-sided loss to Wladimir Klitschko, Rahman is keeping busy, hoping to get the call for one last big fight.
This approach is just what former champ Shannon Briggs adopted, and it looks like “The Cannon” will get a massive fight out of it against Vitali Klitschko, the WBC king. Why would it be a big shock if Rahman wound up doing the same thing, only with a fight with Haye being his big gift? Maybe Haye and his team already have an eye on Rahman, with an idea of facing him in the U.K some time in the coming months?
Sure, such a fight would be one big and easy gift wrapped win for “The Hayemaker,” but due to his popularity at home, a sold-out M.E.N Arena, for example, would be a real possibility.
Haye-Rahman next? Don’t be surprised if it happens is all I’m saying!