David Haye formally announced his opponent for his next fight on May 21st. It’s an opponent who, well to be perfectly honest, didn’t exactly appeal to the masses. Arnold Gjergjaj (29-0, 21 KOs), a 31-year-old who was born in Kosovo and currently resides in Switzerland, will meet Haye in the ring at the O2 arena.
Gjergjaj stands at 6’5″ and has no significant wins other than a unanimous decision victory over Denis Bakhtov last year, a fight in which Arnold was knocked down in the fifth round. Bakhtov was the ninth opponent of Anthony Joshua and got iced in the second round of that fight rather easily.
Thus, Gjergjaj is a C level heavyweight and probably isn’t much better than De Mori, who was absolutely no match for Haye in their fight. Gjergjaj will be lucky to get out of the first round of this fight which is always a terrible factor to have to deal with going into a fight.
If Haye wants to come back and face heavyweights who are simply no match for him, that’s on him, it’s his choice. He has a right to do that just as other fighters have the right to not face the best opponents in their weight division.
But to market it as some big event? To be the main attraction and name the event after yourself when you’re fighting guys who do not have a shot at winning? What kind of scam is that?
Why can’t Haye fight as the co-main on a big UK PPV event and fight the winner of the main event? Haye wouldn’t do this because he wouldn’t be able to pull in the cash he would if he has all these “Haye-Days.” We can be in for another six vs the same level opponents the way it seems.
David Haye is one of the top heavyweights in the world today and is a top level fighter: which is why him fighting no-hopers in his return fights is disappointing, to say the least. Haye should be fighting guys such as Takam, Pulev, Scott, Thompson, anybody but the last two guys Haye has actually fought.
