David Haye: I Think I'll Be Back By Year's End, I Will Be Champion!

By Edward Chaykovsky

Former two division champion David Haye is targeting a ring return before the end of the year.

Haye (28-3, 26 KOs) suffered a major setback earlier this month at the O2 Arena in London, when he was stopped in eleven rounds by heated rival Tony Bellew, who had moved up from the cruiserweight division to take the fight.

During the sixth round of that fight, Haye suffered a severe injury when he tore his Achilles.

Follow the fight, Haye underwent surgery and his rehabilitation is expected to take anywhere from six to nine months.

The fight he desires most is a rematch with Bellew, but the WBC cruiserweight world champion has a variety of options at his feet - which include potential fights with heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker. Although unlikely at this point, Bellew could also return to the cruiserweight division to defend his title.

Haye, 36 years old, still feel confident that he will once again become a heavyweight champion.

"Hello ladies and gentleman, thank you very much for all of your amazingly positive well wishes and messages of support," said Haye in a video posted on Thursday. "Every single one of them has been read and digested by me. I will be back to my very best very soon.

"I have got the best people in the world looking after me so, as soon as it is humanly possible for me to get back in the ring, I will be. We all believe that will be before the end of 2017, which is fantastic, and everyone saw how much I wanted the fight while I was in the fight.

"The question marks were about 'does David still want it, if the going gets tough?' Yes, I still want it, I think I proved to everybody I did, and I am telling you all I will be the heavyweight champion of the world once again.

"Time will tell but I am doing everything humanly possible to get back on track, so watch this space. Thank you very much again for your support."