By Jeff Meyers: Saturday evening at Upton Park in London, England, heavyweight David “Hayemaker” Haye (26-2-0, 24 KOs) defeated fellow Brit Dereck “Del Boy”Chisora (15-4-0, 9 KOs) in an impressive fifth round knockout victory two minutes and 59 seconds into the round. Haye effectively evaded Chisora’s stalking the whole fight, with Chisora unable to land any harmful blows. Haye appeared to be biding his time to unleash his fury, and when he did, he caught Chisora flush on the jaw with a searing left-right combination that sent Del Boy tumbling to the canvas. Chisora gamely battled on, rising to fight, but Haye summarily dispatched Dereck soon thereafter with another series of punches that persuaded referee Luis Pabon to call the fight.
Now the Haye promotion train is running full speed ahead, since Chisora had never been stopped and went the full twelve rounds against arguably the supreme heavyweight reigning champion Vitali “Dr. Ironfist” Klitschko (44-2-0, 42 KOs). On paper, it seems that the Ukrainian behemoth (6’7″, 252 lbs.) would face a daunting challenge from the brash Brit Haye, whose media shenanigans with both Vitali and younger brother/fellow heavyweight champion Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko (58-3-0, 51 KOs) are well-documented.
Yet, giant hurdles exist for Haye to overcome before rationally concluding that Vitali Klitschko should be quivering in his boots right now.
First, Haye looked–and acted–absolutely pathetically in his fight against Wladimir Klitschko. Haye talked as big a game as humanly possible, yet barely lifted his sword against Dr. Steelhammer in their bout and literally took off his boxing shoe in post-fight interviews to bolster his excuse that toe injuries prevented him from prevailing. Haye’s failure to take any chances against Wladimir, and his subsequent excuse-making, caused many to lose faith in the charismatic English heavy.
Second, if one uses the logic above, Muhammad Ali should have been decimated by George Foreman in their epic bout–since Frazier had defeated Ali already and Foreman annihilated Frazier twice with two brutal knockouts. Ali ended up defeating Foreman via knockout in a thrilling bout.
It can also be plausibly argued that, while Vitali did not kayo Chisora, the beating Del Boy took from Dr. Ironfist softened up Chisora enough for the Hayemaker to deliver the knockout blow Chisora had not yet received. Also, Vitali is well known for sporting titanium whiskers–having never tasted the canvas in his professional boxing career–and boasts the highest knockout percentage of all heavyweights in the history of the sweet science. Meanwhile, Haye has been kayoed at the cruiserweight level (Carl Thompson) and was knocked down early in his heavyweight career by journeyman Monte “Two Gunz” Barrett (35-10-2, 20 KOs). Haye won the fight against Barrett, but failed to dispel doubts of his ability to withstand punches at the elite heavyweight level.
If Vitali decides to face Haye, and if Haye decides to actually trade punches toe-to-toe with Dr. Ironfist, the Hayemaker train is likely to be derailed.
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