Former two division champion David Haye has warned his countryman, Tyson Fury, to avoid being overconfident when he steps in the ring with Deontay Wilder for a third time.
The two massive heavyweights fought to a controversial twelve round split draw in December 2018.
In the February rematch, Fury dropped Wilder twice and stopped him in the seventh round to capture the WBC heavyweight title.
Wilder has since exercised an immediate rematch clause, with the third contest, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, being targeted for October.
Haye was twice scheduled to face Fury – and withdrew both times with injury. He also used Wilder as a sparring partner in the past.
“I’m intrigued to see the rematch,” Haye told Boxing Social. “Sometimes things happen in fights and if you fight ten times someone might win nine times. Any big guy like that, the records, the power, the height, the costumes, the excitement of the last fight and the excitement of the first fight, these guys could fight ten times and you’d get different results.
“But looking at that last fight, I’m a fan of Fury and Wilder. Both warriors, both big powerful men, different skill sets, but their styles gel beautifully. The third fight is Fury going to be overconfident going in thinking he’s got his measure and Wilder all of a sudden comes in at a different level and shocks him with one of those massive shots.”
Haye, after listening to the post-fight statements by Wilder, was shocked that he was downplaying the victory of Fury.
“I don’t understand that. That was about as conclusive as you can get really. I can’t imagine him saying that. Maybe he just doesn’t feel he turned up and thinks he beat a very, very poor version of himself. Although technically it was him in the ring. It’s an interesting one I don’t know how feel about that because he said after the fight the better man won in the ring,” Haye said.
“But he’s got an opportunity to do it again and he has a perfect opportunity to back those statements up. If he goes out and knocks Fury out in the rematch in one round then then you can say ‘ah, that was the real Deontay Wilder, sorry.’ His comments can only really be reflected on after the third fight, then you can say either he was talking complete nonsense or he wasn’t the real champion because the real champion showed up this time.”
–boxingscene.com
