Haye Talks Up Fury Clash, But Needs To Prove It In Ring

By Shaun Brown

He’s been gone from the ring since July 2012 but the David Haye PR machine has always been ticking at various speeds even during the down time.

Now after Tyson Fury’s superb win to become the man after beating the man in Wladimir Klitschko last Saturday night in Dusseldorf, Haye’s public appearances on TV, radio and interviews with both print and online boxing press appear to be going into overdrive.

The 35-year-old – who returns to the ring versus Mark de Mori on January 16^th - was on talkSPORT radio earlier today (Wednesday, December 2) and - like the dethroned champion - still appears to be in a bit of shock as to what went down in Germany. While congratulating the newly crowned heavyweight champion of the world, he still had time for an insult to continue their feud which - due to injuries sustained by Haye - has never been sorted out in the ring.

“The fact that he’s somehow gone over to Germany and come back with all of the belts is amazing for British boxing. It was a massive shock getting any type of victory," said Haye. “Boxing is massive news right now. You’ve got this big gypsy crazy buffoon who’s the heavyweight champion of the world and things are looking fantastic.”

Things are looking “fantastic” for British boxing and in particular for Fury who can now take on a rematch with Klitschko, or perhaps look elsewhere should the Ukranian not accept the rematch deadline of January 31. 

One thing’s for sure - it won’t be Haye any time soon.

“David Haye is a coward, he might fool naïve people but he can’t fool real people. We can see inside of his soul. We will never ever speak to him or have him near us ever again,” was how John Fury (Tyson's father) reacted earlier this week to any sort of talk of a future fight between his son and ‘The Hayemaker’.

Team Fury and a lot of fans are angry, annoyed and short of trust for the Londoner after Haye pulled out of a fight with Fury not once but twice in 2013 due to a cut in sparring and having to undergo career-threatening shoulder surgery. 

“I know that the likes of Tyson Fury isn’t going to give me a voluntary defence. I’m going to have to force him to fight me,” said Haye on talkSPORT. “Strangely before the Wladimir Klitschko fight he said he would fight me. Now that he’s won the titles he won’t, it’s quite funny. He [Fury] said: ‘Me and David could make loads of money we could do two million PPV buys.’

“He didn’t expect to win. He won the fight, now he’s got all the marbles. He’s already said he wouldn’t fight Deontay Wilder the WBC champion. The reasons for that were he’s a basketball player (and) he’s been a boxer for two years. Well he’s undefeated, knocked out a lot more people than Tyson Fury has and he’s WBC champion and he’s American and he’s marketable. He’s already written him off.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he writes off Anthony Joshua as Anthony Joshua bashed him up in sparring. He said he doesn’t want to fight me. So off the back he’s just written off the three biggest threats to him. That’s not the best start for a unified champion. It’ll be interesting to see what moves he makes. It’ll be interesting to see whether Tyson Fury gives up the IBF belt or actually goes and fights this undefeated Ukranian fighter." 

The IBF have ordered Fury to face Vyacheslav Glazkov as reported on BoxingScene.com on Tuesday.

“Will it make money? Is Tyson Fury in it for the belts or to win some quick cash? We’ll find out in the coming months," Haye added.

Whether today, yesterday or any time during the past 3½ years, Haye has made use of his personality – for better or for worse - to keep himself in the public eye and to tease from time to time that he was coming back to a sport that crowned him unified world cruiserweight champion and WBA world heavyweight champion.

Whether he likes it or not, Haye is in a lengthy queue to face Fury. And interviews like the one on talkSPORT may or may not hinder his chances of a third opportunity to fight Fury. 

His ring return versus de Mori will give us some idea as to what Haye has left to offer.

“He’s [Fury] already said he’d rather put the belt in the bin than fight me," said Haye. “It reminds you of when Riddick Bowe did that to Lennox Lewis in the 90s. We all know how their careers panned out after that.”

We do – and right now, odds are that we will be talking about what Fury did in the ring in the years to come and occasionally looking up the explosive performances from Haye, mainly in the cruiserweight ranks.

Fury knows that Haye craves another crack at heavyweight glory, we all do. But for a man that has not fought for 3½ years the time for talking is over until we have evidence that ‘The Hayemaker’ is back and here to stay.