So…..you’ve all heard, you’ve all mulled it over, the clock has struck midnight, the newspapers have had their fun, and the fat lady never got a chance to warm up her vocal chords. Haye and Fury is on hold until February the 8th and we have all got to wait haven’t we. I was rabidly up for this fight, Peter Fury had spent two hours arguing just to ensure my backstage presence; time that could have easily been spent on better pursuits – like watching paint dry, or an episode of TOWIE, take your pick. It was a needless argument and I thanked him for having it on my behalf. When I met him three days ago (5 days after Haye cancelled the fight) I had expected an angry man; a product of wasted time and money and adrenaline, but instead I found a guy who was just resigned to the fact David Haye would wait. There was no difference in Peter’s call of the eventual out-come: Tyson would still win the fight…..easily. As we talked, he laughed and smiled at all the disinformation and the conspiracy theories surrounding Haye’s eye injury – varying stories I’ve heard range from Haye cutting his eye on purpose because he has lost his bottle, to Haye accidentally slipping over somewhere embarrassing. No, I don’t believe them either. Peters view on it is this – “These things happen.”. Simple really…and true.
So all is well and good, and the nay-sayers best be quiet eh? Nope, at least not for me. Another rumor concerning Haye surfaced this week that, if anywhere near true, I prayed was wrong. How or where I read it is impossible for me to remember, but it would have been on the internet; Hayes team have been to see Povetkin. Assuming this meeting took place (which it may well not have), I think it’s safe to suggest the trip to Russia wasn’t for a game of Jenga, or to talk about Alexander starring alongside Haye in a re-make of Smokey and the Bandit – Povetkin to play “Fred”. Now, I don’t for a second believe this meeting took place – how awful for boxing would it be if it had – but Haye hasn’t quashed the rumor yet, which he should if he had any sense. It’s well known that I’m not Hayes biggest fan, but I have no axe to grind with him and I don’t wish him any harm; neither do I think he’s a bad human being, but cogs I didn’t want to free from their rust are starting to move in peoples heads and it’s not good for the sport. Take Manuel Charr. His own cogs were freewheeling until Haye cancelled their fight with a hand injury and now he can’t even say Daves name without launching into a tirade of hate. Rumor there was that Haye was going to fight Charr until the rattle of the Sky cash tin came calling in a fight with Tyson Fury. “Toegate” – the bashed up 3 centimeters of flesh that, apparently, caused Haye to fight like every single one of Wladimirs opponents since 2004 – “The hand of Charr”, and now this eye injury. Sometimes I think I’m not the only one who finds this all just too much to lap up like a good little doggy. One thing for sure is I won’t be asking Dave for next weeks lottery numbers.
The way I see it there are two possible outcomes from this mess – 1) Fury and Haye fight on February the 8th and we are all entertained, or 2) Haye signs a deal with Povetkin if the unthinkable happens and he beats WK next week; and the Fight we all want to see gets resigned to our xboxes. It’s a two lane road with shit on both sides.
Povetkin, for all his absence from the media generally, is deserving of his ranking and he is not an easy customer; meaning the fight with Klitschko will be worth watching for the first time in several years. It’s easy to dismiss him as a patsy if you’re uninitiated in the sport, but Alexander is not a fool and he has a good enough pedigree to prove it. Unbeaten, victories over Eddie Chambers, Marco Huck, Ruslan Chagaev, and a game, though geriatric, Hasim Rahman weren’t flukes. Povetkin’s style is to tuck in, plant his feet solidly and to wait, and wait, and wait. He’s not naturally a KO artiste but he can fight against big men with no apparent problems – ask Andrzej Wawrzyk – and his dogged plod forward will, perhaps, be an interesting challenge to an aging Wladimir. One thing is for certain, they will fight.
In a past couple of weeks – where I called the Mayweather Vs Alvarez fight completely wrong, Hughie Fury has added another scalp, in Shane McPhilbin, to an unbeaten start to a very exciting and promising career. McPhilbin was the former British Cruiserweight champion and would have been Hughie’s biggest test so far except that he dislocated his shoulder at the end of the first round and failed to make it out for the second. It looked all the world to me like Hughie had literally punched McPhilbin’s arm out of it’s socket and he was heard after the fight to say he was surprised by Hughie’s power. McPhilbin isn’t the first opponent of Hughie’s to have said those exact words, three men now have had their ribs broken by him. Hughie may be just 19, but he can bang! Dorian Darch is next tonight in another stern test. The Welshman is a powerfully built young man who will be throwing some bombs without a doubt but I expect Hughie to be too mobile, too clever and simply too hard hitting for him. If you haven’t seen Hughie Fury fight yet, I honestly (take aside all my bias) recommend you watch him. People in the sport are starting to take a real interest in him, with good reason. There is something special in Hughie Fury that Heavyweight boxing hasn’t seen for a long time.
Whatever the outcome of the next few weeks and months, my biggest hope is that the “good will out” and Tyson gets the chance he deserves against the top men in the sport. He is good for boxing full stop. Although the bookies don’t agree, a Povetkin victory next weekend will kick the doors of the division off their hinges and when the dust settles, two young boxers of Irish travelling descent will be waiting to see who’s left standing.