By Max Schramm: David Haye will be fighting a famous mystery heavyweight next if he successfully defeats his friend Joe Fournier this Saturday night in their eight round bout on Triller PPV at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida.
Haye will be coming out of his three-year retirement to fight the 38-year-old Fournier. The last time Haye fought was in 2018 when he was stopped in the fifth round by Tony Bellew. He looked shot in that fight, and nowhere near the level he’d been during his best years.
The 40-year-old former two-division world champion Haye (28-4, 26 KOs) could possibly be fighting either 54-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, or 56-year-old Lennox Lewis next. Those are two potential options.
If Haye was fighting those guys when they were reasonably young, I’d say he’d have no chance of beating them. But given that they’re all pushing 60, you got to give Haye an excellent chance of defeating them.
If it’s a fake fight where Haye and his opponent take it easy on one another, it won’t matter who he faces.
“If he [David Haye] wins? All I can say without giving too much away is that you should expect a very big fight,” Triller promoter Ryan Kavanaugh said to Sky Sports.
“I couldn’t tell you who it is. Both are on deck,” said Kavanaugh when asked if it’ll be an American or UK fighter that Haye fights next.
“It may be,” said Kavanaugh when asked if Haye’s next fight could be Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, or Evander Holyfield. “The highest of the high. If that is what you consider the highest of the high? You wouldn’t be wrong,” Kavanaugh said upon being asked if Haye’s opponent will be an ex-heavyweight champion.
“I don’t want to start thinking about stuff like that,” Haye said about his next fight after Fournier. “Let me just get Joe out of the way. I need to go back on holiday!”
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Lewis hasn’t fought in eighteen years since his win over Vitali Klitschko in 2003, and it’s hard to imagine him agreeing to jump into the ring with Haye unless it’s an exhibition in which the two take it easy and dance around the ring.
That’s what we saw in Mike Tyson’s recent eight round exhibition against 52-year-old Roy Jones Jr. last November in a fight that was ruled a draw. It looked like a fake fight in which both guys threw softball shots, and didn’t appear to be trying to hurt one another.
Haye vs. Fournier will be fighting on the undercard of the 58-year-old Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort.