The returning David Haye floored and handily outscored friend and nightclub entrepreneur Joe Fournier before calling out old rival and WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, on Saturday night.
Haye and Fury were originally supposed to meet in September 2013 and then February 2014 but the ‘Hayemaker’ withdrew twice after suffering a cut in sparring against an amateur Filip Hrgovic and then failing to recover from shoulder surgery.
Now the 40-year-old Haye is trying to hype himself into an unlikely payday after his appearance on Saturday’s Triller Fight Club card, but stranger things have happened in boxing.
In his first fight since a second stoppage loss to Tony Bellew in May 2018, Haye dropped Fournier with a jab in the closing stages of the opening round and that proved a rare highlight as the bout descended into a glorified spar between friends with no fireworks.
After eight repetitive rounds, with Haye appearing to hold back against his friend and not launch that vaunted right hand, the former unified cruiserweight and WBA heavyweight champion was adjudged a clear victor 80-71 and 79-72 (twice).
Afterwards, Haye’s thoughts turned to Fury.
“There’s one fighter I would come back to professional boxing for and that’s Tyson Fury,” Haye told Triller afterwards. “That big fat dosser; I know I’m his kryptonite, I know what he can’t handle.
“He’s a dosser and I know I’m his kryptonite and I know he knows it; he knows it, his dad knows it and his uncle knows it.
“My overhand right… which I didn’t even show in there tonight, I didn’t want to scare him. If I’d have let my right hand go, he wouldn’t be taking the fight.
“He thinks it would be an easy fight but [he’s] wrong. I know he’s ducking Anthony Joshua but he doesn’t want that work. We were supposed to fight in 2013 but I was injured but I’m healthy and I’m ready to go.”
Main image: Triller Fight Club.