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by David P. Greisman - Admit it: You missed David Haye.
Missing him was an emotion impossible to imagine a year ago, when he’d failed to fulfill the expectations he’d set for his fight with Wladimir Klitschko, when he’d failed to back up the brash trash talk, failed to take Klitschko out, failed even to go down fighting, instead settling for a dull distance decision loss.
He then pointed to his right toe, which he said had been broken weeks before. We then pointed to the door, and we were glad when he obliged. He announced his retirement three months after losing to Klitschko, and we bid him good riddance. Ours is a sport with a tradition of men who talk big, but it is a sport with no room for men who talk big but do little to back it up.
It seemed impossible that we’d miss him, then, and yet we did — even though he was barely gone.
Haye officially announced his return in May, just seven months after he’d announced his retirement. He came back this past Saturday against Dereck Chisora, barely a year between that night and his fight with Klitschko.
There’s a saying that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Not with David Haye. We didn’t know what we’d been missing until he was back.
Suddenly the heavyweight division is interesting again. Suddenly there’s someone else to talk about.
The dominance of Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko has gone on for so long, and has been so one-sided, that the top of the heavyweight division has gotten boring. It’s not at all surprising that the two best fights in boxing’s marquee division this year were good because of three people not named Klitschko. [Click Here To Read More]
Missing him was an emotion impossible to imagine a year ago, when he’d failed to fulfill the expectations he’d set for his fight with Wladimir Klitschko, when he’d failed to back up the brash trash talk, failed to take Klitschko out, failed even to go down fighting, instead settling for a dull distance decision loss.
He then pointed to his right toe, which he said had been broken weeks before. We then pointed to the door, and we were glad when he obliged. He announced his retirement three months after losing to Klitschko, and we bid him good riddance. Ours is a sport with a tradition of men who talk big, but it is a sport with no room for men who talk big but do little to back it up.
It seemed impossible that we’d miss him, then, and yet we did — even though he was barely gone.
Haye officially announced his return in May, just seven months after he’d announced his retirement. He came back this past Saturday against Dereck Chisora, barely a year between that night and his fight with Klitschko.
There’s a saying that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Not with David Haye. We didn’t know what we’d been missing until he was back.
Suddenly the heavyweight division is interesting again. Suddenly there’s someone else to talk about.
The dominance of Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko has gone on for so long, and has been so one-sided, that the top of the heavyweight division has gotten boring. It’s not at all surprising that the two best fights in boxing’s marquee division this year were good because of three people not named Klitschko. [Click Here To Read More]
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