Will somebody please give David Haye a fight?

David Haye’s demolition of Audley ‘A-Force’ Harrison in the second minute of the third round last night in Manchester’s MEN Arena is being decried in some sections of the media as “a night of total embarrassment for British boxing”.

Ordinary Harrison fails to put up a fight 

I’m not so sure. The only person really embarrassed was poor old ‘Fraudley’: a boxer who, a decade ago, showed such  promise on winning Olympic gold. It’s not my business to kick a man while he’s down; vituperative sports writers will do the job much better than I, so I’ll spare poor Audrey's blushes.

Besides, if as Barry McGuigan has suggested, the bright side of this debacle is that surely now Audley will have to retire, I’m guessing Mr Harrison will find his cut from this fight a comfort at least.

Everybody complains even though the dogs on the street knew that it could never go much further than the third in any event. The fact of the matter is that right about now; there just aren’t any fighters around who’d go the distance never mind beat David Haye. And I’d even stick my neck out and include the Klitschkos in that statement.

Vitali Klitschko, who’s fighting career stretches back to his kick-boxing days in the early 1990s, is still a heavyweight to be reckoned with but he is moving towards a different destiny nowadays.

A celebrated public figure in his adoptive Germany, Vitali has made no secret of his political ambitions in his native Ukraine and that, ultimately, is where his future lies. It’s just a question of choreography after that.

The way that dance card seems to be working out right now is with little brother Wladimir (IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring Magazine World Heavyweight Champion) taking on Haye in the first instance and then, all things being equal, the Bermondsey WBA world heavyweight would take a crack at Vitali’s WBC Heavyweight belt.

Haye certainly sees things in those terms: “There’s nowhere else for those guys to go. If they want to fight for big money they’ve got to come to me,” he told reporters after the fight.

That said, Haye is running to a very tight schedule if his oft stated plans for retirement by October of next year are to followed.

But as everyone knows, timelines for fight fixtures can be pretty elastic in the world of boxing and David Haye is no mug, he’ll follow the money; even if it means having to eat his words on that point.

Vitali Klitschko: recipient of the

Federal Cross of Merit of Germany

In terms of who might win Haye’s Klitschko campaign, my money would have to be on Haye.


I was at the York Hall in 2006 to watch Haye’s ruthless pounding of Danish fighter Lasse Johansen while Haye was still only EBU Cruiserweight Champion but even then, he had immense star quality.

In round 8, a stiff and surgical right caused Johansen’s nose to explode like a bloody red flashbulb popping. That was the tee up for a finish that looked a broken jaw even from the cheap seats.

Haye has shown time and again in his move up to the heavyweight division that it’s not the dog in the fight that matters, it’s the fight in the dog. Nikolai Valuev outweighed Haye by a clear seven stone and let’s not even talk about height and reach.

So while fight fans might have a moan about the lack of a spectacle (and for the prices they pay, Christ knows they’ve a right to), the upside is that the Haye/Harrison match will have been a clear sign to the Klitschkos that making the Haye fights will be a bonanza, the time for hype and avoidance is over.

The outcome, when it finally arrives, should be a bruising two-handed campaign with the Sarf London boy coming out on top in his quest to unify the belts. The Rusty Wire Service is keen to see the when’s and where’s sorted, toots sweet.